The find flies in the face of recent suggestions by Apple that it's the company to turn to if you care about privacy and security.

Research was carried out by a team at Project Zero, Google's security research group that tracks down so-called "zero day" vulnerabilities.

These bugs are named as such because whoever's in charge of the software has "zero days" to find a solution.

They're a valuable tool for hackers and are constantly being hoarded by cyber criminals and intelligence agencies, while others attempt to find and fix them.

Of the six flaws found by the team, Apple has now patched five. To protect yourself, simply update to the latest version of iOS.

Four of the six – including the one not yet patched by Apple – allow a hacker to break into your phone by sending you an iMessage filled with malicious code.

All you need to do is open the message and the cyber crook has remote access to your iPhone.