After Google's very scary sounding Project Zero security report suggesting groups making a "sustained effort to hack the users of iPhones in certain communities over a period of at least two years", Apple has struck back.

With the sentencing of former NSA contractor Harold Martin to nine years in prison for taking huge amounts of company data home, the identity of the Shadow Brokers, the group which leaked numerous NSA exploits on the Web three years ago, still remains unknown.

Former NSA contractor Harold Martin, who has been in jail for allegedly taking a massive horde of security material to his house, is set to plead guilty to the charges on Friday (Thursday US time).