China Hackers Infiltrate US Users' Phone Without Click

The crashes, which began late last year and carried into 2025, were the tipoff to a sophisticated cyberattack

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Cybersecurity investigators noticed a highly unusual software crash—it was affecting a small number of smartphones belonging to people who worked in government, politics, tech, and journalism.

The crashes, which began late last year and carried into 2025, were the tipoff to a sophisticated cyberattack that may have allowed hackers to infiltrate a phone without a single click from the user.

The attackers left no clues about their identities, but investigators at the cybersecurity firm iVerify noticed that the victims all had something in common: They worked in fields of interest to China's government and had been targeted by Chinese hackers in the past.