Apple has issued an urgent update to address security issues after a significant attack.
The new interim update, which comes just before the big release of iOS 18.5, has introduced new security features.
Apple said: ‘We are aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on iOS.
‘This update provides important bug fixes and security updates, and addresses a rare issue that prevents wireless CarPlay connection in certain vehicles.
The security updates address two major flaws which allowed malicious sources to hack and exploit the phones’ audio steam.
This has been used against specific individuals, such as government officials and journalists.
It was feared this type of attack could be used against the wider public, but Apple has confirmed a memory corruption issue was addressed to solve the problem.
The second flaw concerned Return Pointer Authentication Code – which is a security feature used to stop attackers from manipulating code.
It was also used to exploit individuals to bypass any security measures to allow a read-and-write capability.
IPads, Apple TVs and laptops were also affected, but the latest update has fixed the bugs which have allowed it to happen.
It comes as Apple removes its highest level of data protection from UK iPhones after the British government reportedly demanded it have access to user data.
The feature, called Advanced Data Protection (ADP), end-to-end encrypts the majority of files uploaded to the cloud, which means only the user can access them.
It was reported earlier this month that the government had issued an order under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, asking for the ability to access fully encrypted files from Apple users.
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