Hyderabad: In a fresh batch of alerts, iPhone maker Apple has sent threat notifications to some of its users in India, along with 91 other countries, warning them that their iPhone could have been potentially attacked by “mercenary spyware,” including the Israeli NSO Group’s controversial Pegasus malware.
“ALERT: Apple detected a targeted mercenary spyware attack against your iPhone,” the subject line of the threat notification read.
“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. This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it’s never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning — please take it seriously,” the notification email added.
“Mercenary spyware attacks, such as those using Pegasus from the NSO Group, are exceptionally rare and vastly more sophisticated than regular cybercriminal activity or consumer malware. These attacks cost millions of dollars and are individually deployed against a very small number of people, but the targeting is ongoing and global,” Apple said in its threat notification.
“Public reporting and research have shown that mercenary spyware attacks target users across modern computing platforms, including iOS and Safari as well as Google Android, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Windows, as well as a variety of messaging and cloud apps including iMessage and WhatsApp. These attacks are very well funded and are constantly evolving,” the notification said.
Apple has advised its users to be cautious with all links they receive, and not to tap on any links or attachments from unexpected or unknown senders, without any confirmation about the sender. The company, however, said it was unable to provide more information about what caused it to send the threat notification, as that could help mercenary spyware attackers “adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future”.
Last October, it had sent a similar notification to Opposition leaders across parties warning of a “potential state-sponsored spyware attack” on their iPhones. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress' Lok Sabha Member Shashi Tharoor and his party's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera were among the leaders who claimed they received the message from the tech giant.
Apple launched the threat notification system in November 2021 to warn users who may have been targeted by state-sponsored attackers.
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