China was behind the years-long campaign targeting iPhone users that was recently uncovered by Google researchers, two separate reports claim. Last week, Google published a report about the campaign, which targeted users via a number of malicious websites. Merely visiting one of those sites could result in a user having their device compromised. The campaign took advantage of 12 separate security flaws in iPhones that could lead to device exploitation along five different attack chains.
While Google did not identify the threat actors behind the campaign, a recent TechCrunch report indicates that the campaign was part of a Chinese state-backed effort to target the oppressed Uyghur community in China. Because the malicious websites were indexed by Google, non Uyghurs also visited them. On Sunday, a Forbes report also pointed to China as the actor behind the campaign. In addition, Forbes found that the malicious websites not only targeted iPhones, but went after Android devices and Windows computers as well.
Read more: Report: China behind iPhone hacking, targeted Android and Windows too