Apple Boss Gets Knickers In A Twist Over Google Claims Ahead Of New iPhone Launch

Days out from one of Apple’s biggest press conferences of the year CEO Tim Cook has lashed out at archrival Google who exposed major security issues with the Companies hero iPhone and iOS.

Google claimed that large scale exploitation and hacking was possible because of security issues with Apple software that powers their core products.

Now Cook has gone on the attack claiming that Apple is being stitched up days out from their big new iPhone reveal.

He has told Apple executives that he is “incensed” at the attack.

In a statement posted on Friday, Apple took issue with Google’s characterisation that this was a broad attack on all iPhone users.

“Google’s post, issued six months after iOS patches were released, creates the false impression of ‘mass exploitation’ to ‘monitor the private activities of entire populations in real time,’ stoking fear among all iPhone users that their devices had been compromised,” it reads.

“This was never the case.”

He also claims that what was left out of Googles Project Zero Teams report was that Google’s business interests in China led it to pull back on describing the attack as being targeted at the persecuted Uighur community.

“The sophisticated attack was narrowly focused, not a broad-based exploit of iPhones ‘en masse’ as described. The attack affected fewer than a dozen websites that focus on content related to the Uighur community.”

This perspective is backed up by independent research from Volexity, a cyber-security firm based in Washington DC. It published a report earlier this month looking into the same threat and stated unequivocally that Uighurs were the target – detailing 11 websites that had been used to carry out the attack.

Most notably, the Volexity report states that as well as Apple’s iOS, Google’s own mobile operating system, Android, was also targeted – a detail that was missing from Google’s research.

Google insists it didn’t know Android was affected – but it’s aware how it looks.

The big issue for both Companies is that the attack was allegedly driven by Chinese authorities and both Companies don’t want to upset the Chinese Authorities.