It’s time to hit that update button again
If you own an iPhone or iPad that’s running iOS 16 or iPadOS 16, you should manually update your software right now – Apple has just released an important security fix that could stop hackers from installing spyware on your device without even touching it.
The vulnerability has only juts been discovered, which means Apple has rushed out a fix in the form of iOS 16.6.1 and iPadOS 16.6.1. You may need to install these updates manually even if you have automatic updates turned on – to do this, go to Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone or iPad, and tap ‘download and install’.
The update is available for all iPhones from the iPhone 8 onwards, all iPad Pro models, the iPad Air 3rd generation (from 2019) and later, the iPad 5th generation (from 2017) onwards, and the iPad Mini 5th gen (from 2019) or later. The security flaw was discovered by Citizen Lab, which is a spyware research group in the University of Toronto.
The reason why this particular iOS vulnerability is so noteworthy – and important to fix – is because it allowed the remote installation of the NGO Group’s Pegasus mercenary spyware, which lets governments spy on citizens.
