By Eric Mack From Newsmax

Google researchers revealed a hacking operation on iPhones that left users vulnerable for two and a half years, including passwords, messages, emails, and contacts, The Guardian reported.

The hacks came from malware installed on phones when the users visited compromised websites and were discovered by Google’s external security experts, according to the report. Found Feb. 1, Apple fixed its security flaw Feb. 7, according to Google.

“This was a failure case for the attacker,” Google security research Ian Beer told The Guardian. “For this one campaign that we’ve seen, there are almost certainly others that are yet to be seen.

“All that users can do is be conscious of the fact that mass exploitation still exists and behave accordingly; treating their mobile devices as both integral to their modern lives, yet also as devices which when compromised, can upload their every action into a database to potentially be used against them.”

Before the fix, restarting the iPhone would have stopped “persistent access,” but Google security research Ian Beer said stolen data from the iPhone keychain would have given hackers access even after a restart.

“Given the breadth of information stolen, the attackers may nevertheless be able to maintain persistent access to various accounts and services by using the stolen authentication tokens from the keychain, even after they lose access to the device,” Beer said.

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