Apple on Wednesday sent threat notifications to iPhone users in 92 countries, warning them that they may have been targeted by mercenary spyware attacks.
The company sent the alerts to people in 92 countries at 12 p.m. Pacific time on Wednesday. The company did not reveal the identities of the attackers or the countries where users received notifications.
“Apple has detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is attempting to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID -xxx-,” the company wrote in the warning to affected customers.
“This attack is likely targeted at you specifically because of who you are or what you do. While it is never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting these types of attacks, Apple has great confidence in this warning – take it seriously.”
The iPhone maker sends these notifications several times a year and has notified users in more than 150 countries since 2021. wrote on an updated support page. Apple also sent a warning to some journalists and politicians in India in October last year. Later, the nonprofit advocacy group Amnesty International reported that it had found NSO Group’s invasive Pegasus spyware on the iPhones of prominent Indian journalists. (Users in India are among those who received the new threat notifications, according to people familiar with the matter.)
Apple’s warnings come amid a global wave of elections. Many companies have warned about increasing state-sponsored efforts to influence certain election results. Apple Alerts did not comment on its timing. “We cannot provide more information about what prompted us to send you this notification, as that may help mercenary spyware attackers adapt their behavior to evade detection in the future,” the company told affected customers.
Apple previously described the attackers as “state-sponsored” but replaced all such references with “mercenary spyware attacks.” The warning to customers said: “Mercenary spyware attacks, such as those used by NSO Group’s Pegasus, are exceptionally rare and much more sophisticated than normal cybercriminal activity or consumer malware.”
Apple says it relies solely on “internal threat intelligence information and research to detect such attacks.” It adds: “While our investigations can never achieve absolute certainty, Apple threat notifications are highly confident alerts that an individual user has been targeted by a mercenary spyware attack and should be taken very seriously.”
