(Shutterstock)Spyware crafted by an "advanced cyber actor" infected multiple targeted mobile phones through the popular WhatsApp communications programme without any user intervention through in-app voice calls, the company said. The Financial Times identified the actor as Israel's NSO Group, and a WhatsApp spokesman later said "we're certainly not refuting any of the coverage you've seen." The malware was able to penetrate phones through missed calls alone via the app's voice calling function, the spokesman for the Facebook subsidiary said late on Monday. NSO's spyware has repeatedly been found deployed to hack journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and dissidents. That makes the discovery of the vulnerability particularly disturbing because one of the targets was a U.K.-based human rights lawyer, the attorney told the AP.

Source: The Telegraph May 14, 2019 06:00 UTC