In 2014, Vladimir Putin notoriously described the internet as originally a ‘special project of the CIA’ that ‘is still developing as such’. He is also averse to mobile phones, not using or owning one himself and banning them from his offices. These two concerns have come together in today’s announcement by the Federal Security Service (FSB) that it had uncovered a massive ‘multi-level operation’ to hack the smartphones of Russian officials. The FSB’s official announcement states that:
Using the technical capabilities of large international IT corporations and mobile communications, representatives of foreign intelligence agencies carried out the covert, unauthorised collection of various types of information from the devices of cyberattack targets.
But behind the dry prose is a tale of advanced electronic espionage. In particular, the claim is that Apple iPhones of Russian officials were infected with malware so that they could essentially be taken over: not only could calls be listened to and emails read, but the camera and microphone could be used to eavesdrop and watch, while geolocation data located the phone and its unwary user. The goal was apparently not simply to gain specific, actionable intelligence from officials’ conversations or even those held near them but also to use this as a means to gauge the mood of the country in general and the elite in particular.
