Apple says it was unaware of NSA iPhone hack efforts

Apple Inc today said that it was not aware of the National Security Agency's efforts to hack into the iPhone and had never facilitated the efforts of the agency to install backdoors into its products.

The Cupertino-based company came out with a strongly-worded statement in response  to a recent article in the German magazine Der Spiegel, which reported that NSA analysts referred internally to iPhone users as ''zombies'' who ''pay for their own surveillance.''

''Apple has never worked with the NSA to create a backdoor in any of our products, including iPhone,'' an Apple spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

The German magazine however, released several slides, detailing the agency's hacking division - known internally as the Tailored Access Operations, or TAO division, of which one slide described an NSA software implant called Dropoutjeep, which was most revealing.

The agency described Dropoutjeep as a ''software implant for Apple iPhone'' that came with all kinds of handy spy capabilities. Dropoutjeep is capable of pushing or pulling information onto the iPhone, snag SMS text messages, contact lists and voicemail. It can also pass on a person's geolocation, both from the phone itself and from nearby cell towers.

Security researcher Jacob Applebaum gave details of the NSA programme based on a purportedly leaked document about that agency's access to the iPhone, in comments made in Germany.

Apple said it was continuously working to make its products even more secure, and facilitating customers to keep their software up to date with the latest advancements.

Apple added, it would continue to use its resources to stay ahead of malicious hackers and defend its customers from security attacks, regardless of who was behind them.

Applebaum told the security conference in Germany that with the programme called Dropoutjeep the NSA was able to intercept SMS messages, access contact lists, locate a phone using cell tower data, access voice mail or activate an iPhone's microphone and camera.

He described it as "an iPhone backdoor" that the NSA could use to access any iPhone.

In a blog post, security researcher Graham Cluely wrote that Applebaum's presentation and the documents showed a "broader range of tools that the NSA apparently deploys against other technology companies and products, including HP (Hewlett-Packard) servers, Cisco firewalls, Huawei routers, and so on."