Apple Sounds Alarm Over Mercenary Spyware Campaign Targeting iPhones

Apple users located across 98 countries have received notifications from the company that they have been targeted in a recent spyware campaign, according to a report by TechCrunch. This is part an initiative by Apple to warn users who are typically at higher risk of being targeted in these kinds of attacks, such as politicians, journalists, and employees of human rights organizations. The company says it issues these warnings based on threat-intelligence collected internally. Also note that this is separate from recent security attacks targeting Apple IDs.

The message sent to users states that “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-.” Apple adds that “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 company is holding back quite a bit of information, including what group is carrying out this latest campaign. However, it’s not because of the usual secrecy Apple is known for. The company is remaining tight lipped about the spyware campaign as it wants to avoid giving the attackers any information that might allow them to better craft a campaign in the future. One that can get past Apple’s threat intelligence teams.

What is known so far is that users in India have been reporting receiving this message. It’s not the first time individuals in this part of the world have been targeted, as similar messages were sent by Apple in October of last year. It was later discovered that these attacks were conducted using the spyware dubbed Pegasus, made by the NSO Group.

While it’s not going to affect most users, it’s still concerning to see targeted campaigns like this show up more often. All it takes is for one of these companies, such as the NSO Group, getting compromised for some potent attack tools to make their way to less sophisticated threat actors. Hopefully Apple can continue to keep up with the bad guys.