Apple has sent a new series of threat alerts to iPhone users in 98 countries, warning them about possible attacks from mercenary spyware. This is the company’s second major alert campaign this year, following a similar notification sent to users in 92 nations in April.
The new alert notifications were issued to two prominent personalities in India — Iltija Mufti, political adviser and daughter of Mehbooba Mufti, and Pushpraj Deshpande, founder of Samruddha Bharat Foundation, reports The Hindu.
Since initiating these notifications in 2021, Apple has extended its warning system to users in over 150 countries, reports TechCrunch. The recent alert, issued on Wednesday, did not specify the attackers’ identities or the countries where the user received the warnings.
Apple’s notification to affected users was explicit: “Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID -xxx-” The alert further stated: “This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it’s never possible to achieve absolute certainly when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning — please take it seriously.”
India is also among the countries where the alerts have been issued. This comes after a previous episode in late 2023, when Apple issued comparable warnings to several Indian media professionals and political figures.
Apple also issued patches to fix the zero-day flaws exploited for distributing Pegasus on systems.
Following the incident, Amnesty International conducted an investigation and reported finding sophisticated malware, Pegasus, on the iPhones of several journalists. The spyware was created by the NSO Group, a technology company based in Israel.
During the April notifications, it was revealed that Apple removed the ‘state-sponsored’ term due to pressure from the Indian government.
In the July notifications, Apple did not explicitly state that the attack was state-sponsored. However, it named the Pegasus spyware as an example.
After the Pegasus fiasco, governments around the world switched to Predator to target individuals.
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