A presidential candidate in Egypt has been targeted by spyware

On Saturday, Ahmed Altantawy, a presidential candidate in Egypt alerted the internet monitoring group Citizen Lab after receiving concerning messages on his smartphone.

Security researchers claim that Egyptian officials were likely behind many recent spyware attacks on an opposition presidential candidate in Egypt.

Ahmed Altantawy claimed on Saturday that after receiving ominous messages on his smartphone, he informed internet watchdog Citizen Lab.

Referring to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the former legislator claimed that he believed they were malevolent and inexorably tied to his political campaign and his opposition role in the nation against the Sisi administration.

The hacking attempts may have also looked for incriminating information that might be used to slander or defame him, he continued.

The malware targeting Altantawy was discovered last week by researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab and Google's Threat Analysis Group. As a result, Apple released security upgrades on Thursday to fix the corresponding flaws.

Altantawy's phone's connection to the Vodafone Egypt mobile network was set up in attempts starting in August, according to Citizen Lab, to infect it with Predator malware automatically whenever he accessed websites not using the secure HTTPS protocol.

According to the watchdog, Altantawy's phone was in "lockdown mode," which Apple advises for users who are at high risk, such as activists, journalists, and political dissidents in nations like Egypt. This is why the attempts most likely failed.