Full Breakdown
Dutch Intelligence Gains Visual Access to Jared Kushner’s iPhone
By Drooid · · How we work
Incident Overview
In the months following a Russian operative’s hand-over of a GRU-controlled remote server to Dutch intelligence, the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) uncovered screenshots of former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s iPhone. The device was an iPhone X, released in November 2017 with Apple’s Face ID biometric lock.
How the Access Was Gained
The Dutch team, operating in The Hague, initially attempted to reverse-engineer the Russian penetration of the phone. Their analysis revealed that the GRU’s exploit created an “unlocked window” that allowed the MIVD to view the phone’s screen in real time. By early 2018 the MIVD confirmed a vulnerability that let them capture every image displayed on Kushner’s screen as he used the device. The access was limited to screen-viewing; the exploit did not enable full remote control, such as turning the phone into a microphone or camera.
What the Dutch Observed
While monitoring the screen, Dutch analysts saw Kushner log into a United Arab Emirates bank account. At the time of observation, the account had already received “hundreds of millions of dollars” from a bank in Azerbaijan. The MIVD’s initial assessment linked the Azerbaijani bank to the Azerbaijani government.
Implications
The episode illustrates how state-level cyber operations can expose high-profile individuals to foreign intelligence surveillance, even when modern biometric security features are employed. It also raises questions about the financial channels used by senior U.S. officials and the potential for foreign government involvement in those transactions. The Dutch intelligence community retained the captured screen images on internal servers, adding a rare visual record of a former senior adviser’s device activity to its archives.