MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. Russia's Ministry for Digital Technology, Communication and Mass Media plans to ban its employees from using iPhones for work purposes next week.
Deputy Minister Alexander Shoitov made this announcement while talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Future Technologies Forum.
"We plan to issue the same order [for subordinate organizations]. It is now being agreed, I think that this will happen this or next week," he said.
Shoitov stressed that the tech giant’s phones would be banned for official use.
Spyware on Apple devices
Earlier, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that, together with the Federal Security Guard Service, it had uncovered a US intelligence campaign, which was conducted through a virus program on Apple mobile devices. Experts have identified "anomalies that are specific only to users of Apple mobile phones and are caused by the operation of previously unknown malicious software that uses software vulnerabilities provided by the manufacturer."
Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry introduced a ban on the use of iPhones on July 17. Earlier today, a ban on the use of Apple technology for official purposes was introduced for employees of all entities of the Rostec corporation.
According to the FSB, several thousand iPhones were infected that belong to both Russian subscribers and foreign users using SIM cards registered with diplomatic missions and embassies in Russia, including the countries of the NATO bloc and the post-Soviet space, as well as Israel, Syria and China.
The information received by Russian intelligence services "testifies to the close cooperation of Apple with the national intelligence community, in particular the US’ NSA."
The company provides ample opportunities to control any persons that are of interest to the White House, the FSB concluded.