Pierluigi Paganini
April 11, 2024
Apple is alerting iPhone users in 92 countries about mercenary spyware attacks, reported Reuters.
Reuters only mentioned India as one of the countries where users were targeted by the attacks.
According to a threat notification email sent to targeted users, the IT giant detected attempts to “remotely compromise the iPhone.”
The company did not attribute the targeted attacks to “any specific state-sponsored attacker”.
“Initially, Apple explicitly referred to “state-sponsored attacks.” After the last warnings to Indian opposition politicians and journalists, the government there appeared to be annoyed – unfavorable for Apple, after all, India is becoming increasingly important as an iPhone production location.” reported the German website Heise. “Meanwhile, the iPhone company instead speaks diplomatically of “mercenary spyware” and notes that such attacks “have historically been associated with state actors.””
Apple started sending such kind of threat notifications in 2021, and since then the company has notified users in more than 150 countries.
Apple recommends that targeted iPhone users update their devices to the latest software version and contact cybersecurity experts to investigate potential compromise.
In response to a wave of sophisticated attacks against Apple users (i.e. Pegasus, DevilsTongue, and Hermit) in July 2022 Apple developed a new security feature, called lockdown mode, to protect its users against highly targeted cyberattacks.
Some of the protections implemented in the lockdown mode are:
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