US company tied to iPhone hacking tool deployed by UAE in 2016

In 2016, an iPhone exploit was purchased and deployed by the United Arab Emirates in a surveillance campaign targeting dissidents, activists, foreign leaders and other persons of interest. A new report claims an American company developed and sold the hack.Citing sources familiar with the matter, the MIT Technology Review on Wednesday reports U.S. cybersecurity firm Accuvant developed and sold an iMessage exploit to American mercenaries working for the UAE. The vulnerability was the primary tool in Abu Dhabi's 'Karma' espionage program and was reportedly used against hundreds of targets.How the iMessage attack vector worked is unclear, but Accuvant sold the same exploit to a number of companies, the report says. The firm marketed similar solutions to the U.S. government and other countries before being assimilated by Optiv, a cybersecurity firm that no longer focuses on the development of hacks. Read more...