Apple iPhone owners 167 times more at risk of being hacked: Study

As smartphone hacking via third-party bugs increases (like WhatsApp-Pegasus case), a new study in Britain has discovered that iPhone owners are a whopping 167 times more at risk of being hacked than other mobile brands. The tech experts at UK-based phone case company Case24.com gathered the data by analysing monthly Google search volumes to see how many British people are looking to find information on how to hack different apps or smartphone brands.

The total search volume for iPhones was 10,040 in Britain -- significantly higher than Samsung that came in second place with 700 searches. "LG, Nokia and Sony were the phones that hackers were least interested in, generating under 100 searches a month for each individual brand," reports goodtoknow.co.uk. Sony was at the bottom with just 50 searches.

In another finding, the tech experts came to know that 12,310 British people are interested in finding out how to hack someone`s Instagram account. Snapchat was second and WhatsApp third. Apps that posed a lower risk of being hacked were Facebook (1,120), Amazon (1,070) and Netflix (750).

"Instagram account is 16 times more likely to be hacked than your Netflix account," the study said. The study, however, did not highlight specific risk factors and vulnerabilities. Apple in August fixed an "unpatched" bug in the latest iOS update that had left its most up-to-date iPhones vulnerable to hacking risk. The update introduced a fix for vulnerability in which, according to Apple, "a malicious application may be able to execute arbitrary code with system privileges".

A security researcher that goes by the name of "Pwn20wnd" published a jailbreak for the earlier iOS 12.4 update. Jailbreaking an iPhone lets people customise their iOS devices and run unsupported apps. Apple never allows unsupported apps on its iOS platform, which makes its devices extra secure.