Germany's Der Spiegel reported this week that a secretive unit of the NSA, now under fire for the extent and depth of its spying programmes around the world, makes specialised gear and software to infiltrate and monitor a plethora of computing devices, including mobile phones.
The report included an NSA graphic dated 2008 that outlined a system in development called DROPOUTJEEP, calling it a "software implant" that allows infiltrators to push and pull and retrieve data from iPhones such as contact lists. Der Spiegel referred to it as a "trojan," or malware that helps hackers get into protected systems.
The report, which surfaced on Sunday, did not suggest that Apple had cooperated with the US spying agency on so-called backdoors.
The iPhone was a relatively new-fangled gadget in 2008. It hit the market in 2007 and proceeded to help revolutionize the mobile phone industry.
"Apple has never worked with the NSA to create a backdoor in any of our products, including iPhone. Additionally, we have been unaware of this alleged NSA program targeting our products," the company said in a statement.
"We will continue to use our resources to stay ahead of malicious hackers and defend our customers from security attacks, regardless of who's behind them."
