IPhone (Illustration)
IPhone (Illustration)Reuters

Apple has issued an urgent update, iOS 9.3.5 , after a group of malware hunters discovered a sophisticated piece of spyware which took advantage of three previously unknown security faults in Apple's iOS to give hackers complete control over any iPhone

The root software on which the spyware is built has been traced to Israeli cyber surveillance company NSO Group.

“It’s the most sophisticated mobile malware we’ve seen by an order of magnitude,” Mike Murray, the vice president for security research at Lookout told Motherboard. “It steals all the information that could be useful for someone to spy on you.”

According to media reports across the globe, the NSO software exploited three seperate security weaknesses in the iOS.

The malware can record sound, collect passwords, and transmit the location of the phone at any time. It can also read emails and texts, and to follow telephone conversations and phone contacts when the call function is activated.

Software giant Apple released the system update after discovering that the security breach can affect all iPhone products, and is suspected of being used by Middle Eastern regimes to spy on journalists and human rights activists.