Chinese authorities behind two-year old iOS hack - and Android and Windows also compromised

Apple iOS compromise widespread in Xinjiang also affected Android and Windows PCs - but Google's Project Zero did not disclose these findings

The major hack on Apple iOS revealed last week may have involved Android and Windows PC, too - and was almost certainly the work of authorities in China.

Latest reports indicate that both Android devices and Windows PCs were also subjected to the same attacks, with the predominant targets being devices owned by people in the Xinjiang region of China - making Chinese authorities almost certainly the group behind the attacks.

Xinjiang, is a predominantly ethnic Uyghur, Muslim region of north-west China.

China keeps Xinjiang under lockdown, with roadblocks and security checks regularly carried out, and pervasive CCTV with image recognition systems. It is said to have one million or more people in re-education centres.

According to Forbes, the two-year campaign which had previously been believed to be aimed solely iOS actually morphed during the course of the two-year attack to reflect the gadget ownership of the target group. The embedded malware on the trigger web pages was then adapted for each format.

The report from Google's Project Zero white hat hacking team only mentioned iOS, embarrassing Apple, but also failing to mention security shortcomings in Google's own Android operating system.

Microsoft commented: "Google Project Zero was very specific in its blog post that the recently publicized attacks used unique iPhone exploits and they have not disclosed similar information to us,"

Microsoft added that it is investigating the issue and will take appropriate action.

Apple is yet to comment, which is par for the course for Apple.

Google, meanwhile, has made no further comment following today's revelations, but it does raise some awkward questions over why Project Zero declined to fully disclose the extent of the security breaches.

Although iOS has a well-earned reputation for security, unless jailbroken, it's thought that not only did the hackers find a way through all those layers of security, but that many non-Uyghur people outside of the 'target area' and group were caught up by the malware, too.