I iPhones are now vulnerable to hacking

Rich

Rich

Senior Member
Location
Florida
Earlier this month, Google researchers said they identified a sophisticated iPhone hacking toolkit, called Coruna, originally built for an unnamed government customer that later ended up in the hands of a Chinese cybercriminal group. TechCrunch later reported that defense contractor L3Harris created the spyware for the U.S. government.

On the same server, researchers said Wednesday they found another iPhone hacking kit, dubbed DarkSword, that can instantly infect iPhones visiting a specific set of websites, including Ukrainian news and government sites, as part of a so-called "watering hole attack."

Here's a link to the full article:
https://www.axios.com/2026/03/21/iphone-spyware-is-everyones-problem-now
 
I know now if I have to order something online I definitely will be looking up where the seller is even Walmart
has many products that ships from China. It's like big spider web anymore, especially anything Electronic.
I have already been checking that more for the shipping time but this makes it more serious to me.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I believe that Apple has already released IOS updates that provide protection against DarkSword and Coruna. 🤔
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Indeed, they’ve released updates to counter DarkSword and Coruna, but the article made it clear that these fixes aren’t fully effective. My broader point, though, was that for years the iPhone simply wasn’t a major target for hackers but it now appears that this long‑standing advantage may be starting to shift.
 
IrishEyes said:
I know now if I have to order something online I definitely will be looking up where the seller is even Walmart
has many products that ships from China. It's like big spider web anymore, especially anything Electronic.
I have already been checking that more for the shipping time but this makes it more serious to me.
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It's deeply disappointing that a tool like the internet that is profoundly useful is also a cesspool of deceit and thievery.
 
I never order anything on my phone. Occasionally, I use Google MAPS and NOAA weather on my phone and that's about it. Otherwise, my cellular internet is always turned off. I hope such limited use is keeping me safe from hackers - but I don't know that. It's either I take a chance with such limited usage, or stay off internet completely, as in the days of flip phones.
 
Rich said:
It's deeply disappointing that a tool like the internet that is profoundly useful is also a cesspool of deceit and thievery.
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The bad guys have always been with us, we grew up learning how to protect ourselves against various threats but our ability to protect ourselves on the internet and in the electronic age doesn’t feel as comfortable to us as it does for younger folks.

I have to believe that if we continue to use the common sense that has served us well all through our lives we’ll be okay.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
I never order anything on my phone. Occasionally, I use Google MAPS and NOAA weather on my phone and that's about it. Otherwise, my cellular internet is always turned off. I hope such limited use is keeping me safe from hackers - but I don't know that. It's either I take a chance with such limited usage, or stay off internet completely, as in the days of flip phones.
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I don't know which phone you have (iPhone or Android) but they both of these come with a form of protection, on an Android it's called Knox. I don't think iPhone as a specific name like that but it does have built in protection. I have no idea how effective they are but so far I've not had my phone hacked (that I know of). Having said that, I don't use any banking or financial apps on my phone. I like your model as well, keep it off the internet. Again, it's a shame that it has to be this way.
 
Rich said:
I don't know which phone you have (iPhone or Android) but they both of these come with a form of protection, on an Android it's called Knox.
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I have an Android. To my knowledge, I've never been hacked, or if so, I haven't experienced any known issues. It's strange, but I've never been intrigued or captivated in any way by a phone. My laptop is where I do everything of importance.
 
MarciKS said:
I can't turn mine off because if I do, I won't be able to make or receive phone calls. All I could do is turn the phone off.
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Thanks for the input, which is news to me. Cellular phones use voice networks (2G, 3G, or VoLTE over 4G/5G) to make calls, which go over the voice network towers. In my area, if mobile data is turned off (which is what I actually was referring to in my post #6) I can still make calls.

from Google help

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MACKTEXAS said:
I have an Android. To my knowledge, I've never been hacked, or if so, I haven't experienced any known issues. It's strange, but I've never been intrigued or captivated in any way by a phone. My laptop is where I do everything of importance.
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Agreed, the screen is too small to do much on the phone and the keyboard is, for me, impossible to use without multiple mistakes. I use a PC with a large monitor and a tablet on occasionally.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
Thanks for the input, which is news to me. Cellular phones use voice networks (2G, 3G, or VoLTE over 4G/5G) to make calls, which go over the voice network towers. In my area, if mobile data is turned off (which is what I actually was referring to in my post #6) I can still make calls.

from Google help

Post edited for clarification
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I understand that. If my home wifi is off and my data is off I am unable to use my phone at all.
 
MarciKS said:
I understand that. If my home wifi is off and my data is off I am unable to use my phone at all.
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Sorry to hear that. My plan has unlimited calls and texts, but there is a cap on my data. So, if I lived in an area where that was the case, my phone would only be good for calls up to my data limit.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
Sorry to hear that. My plan has unlimited calls and texts, but there is a cap on my data. So, if I lived in an area where that was the case, my phone would only be good for calls up to my data limit.
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Verizon has it fixed where if you want to make a call with no internet you have to pay an extra $10 a month to set up a hotspot and with the data turned off I can't get calla or texts.
 
Aunt Bea said:
When I had a plan with limited data I got to know all of the stores and businesses that offered free Wi-Fi.

I used to head for Wegman’s when my phone needed a software update.

Does the hospital offer free Wi-Fi that you could tap into on breaks? 🤔
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Yes but it's crappy. I have unlimited everything so not worried about it. Just that if I want to use my phone I hafta be online somewhere or look for a phone with no wifi.
 
IrishEyes said:
I know now if I have to order something online I definitely will be looking up where the seller is even Walmart
has many products that ships from China. It's like big spider web anymore, especially anything Electronic.
I have already been checking that more for the shipping time but this makes it more serious to me.
Click to expand...
I had a letter from Malwarebytes I hadn't opened until just now. It talks bout fake online stores which fits in my concerns
about looking up where the seller/shipper is from. I imagine though these will use a fake place of business.
Malwarebytes has more about this scam I didn't want to plaster several pages on here.
Here is the first part of it. If it interests you go to www.malwarebytes.com see the rest of this plus more.
browser addy Inside a network of 20,000+ fake shops

Polished storefronts, empty warehouses​

Fake shops are fraudulent websites designed to look and feel like legitimate online retailers. They have product listings, brand logos, customer reviews, shopping carts, and functional-looking checkout pages. They just never deliver what they promise. In some cases, victims receive nothing at all. In others, they get a cheap knockoff worth a fraction of the advertised price.

Either way, the product being sold is your data: these fake shops harvest your payment credentials, billing addresses, and personal details and then resell them on criminal marketplaces or use them directly for identity fraud.

The scale of the problem has exploded. According to recent threat intelligence data, fake e-shop scams rose by 790% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period the year before, driven in part by economic anxiety around trade tariffs pushing consumers toward bargain alternatives.

During the 2024 holiday season alone, researchers identified over 80,000 fake stores, many of which disappeared or rebranded within days. Industry telemetry from late 2025 found that fake shops accounted for 65% of all threats blocked on social media, with Facebook and YouTube as the primary launchpads.

These operations are increasingly industrialized. Researchers recently documented FraudWear, a coordinated campaign involving over 30,000 fraudulent stores impersonating more than 350 fashion brands worldwide.

Another investigation uncovered BogusBazaar, a franchise-style network where a core team maintained the servers, payment processing, and template infrastructure, while decentralized operators spun up individual shops on top of it. That network processed over a million orders across 75,000 domains since 2021.

Fake shops succeed because they use familiar shopping behavior: clicking on ads, following search results, and landing on polished-looking sites. They layer psychological pressure on top, with limited-time offers, countdown timers, and disappearing stock warnings.
 
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