Tech giant Apple is accusing Google of ‘stoking fear’ in iPhone users after releasing details of security vulnerability on their phones.
In an Aug. 30 blog post, Google said it found a hacking operation that used websites to implant malicious software onto iPhones using the Apple web browser Safari that would allow the hackers access to photos and other data.
Google said the operation had occurred for at least two years, but Apple downplayed the breach, saying it had only gone on for two months and was much smaller than Google described.
“Google’s post, issued six months after iOS patches were released, creates the false impression of ‘mass exploitation’ to ‘monitor the private activities of entire populations in real time,’ stoking fear among all iPhone users that their devices had been compromised,” Apple said in its own blog post on Friday. “This was never the case.”
Apple said the breach only affected about a dozen websites that focused on creating content related to the Uighur community, a primarily Muslim minority in China facing mass detention under the Chinese government.
Apple added that once the company discovered the breach back in February, it was resolved within 10 days. Apple said it had already known about the breach by the time Google had contacted them.
“Security is a never-ending journey and our customers can be confident we are working for them,” Apple wrote in the blog. “Our product security teams around the world are constantly iterating to introduce new protections and patch vulnerabilities as soon as they’re found.”
