Spyware attacks
Advanced spyware tools are increasingly used to infect smartphones of high-value targets, such as journalists, politicians, dissidents, businesspeople, etc. By leveraging vulnerabilities in mobile operating systems (iOS and Android) and apps with technically sophisticated and expensive exploits, this spyware can pull practically all data from the phone or effectively turn it into a surveillance device with remote microphone or camera activation. It is very difficult for a person to discover whether their phone is infected without a forensic analysis. Spyware products such as Pegasus and Predator have gained notoriety in recent years, but it is plausible that there are many more such tools out there.