Apple warns iPhone users in 98 countries that they may be victims “paid spyware attacks”. This type of threat can lead to surveillance of the entire mobile phone browsing, such as reading messages exchanged in applications, and theft of personal or financial data.
“Apple has detected that you are the target of a paid spyware attack Someone trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID” the statement says. The message also said the company was not sure exactly what kind of damage was caused, but reinforces that the warning must be taken seriously due to the existence of evidence.
Not all residents of these countries receive the warning: only The person who received the notification in the form of a message was affected due to the attacks. The identities of these potential victims are being kept completely confidential.
According to Apple, users who are targeted by these scams are They were victimized because of their positions or professional activities.Journalists, activists, business people and politicians are frequently subjected to such threats.
The warning is already only second in 2024
Apple issued a very similar warning in April of this year, and the close proximity between the two is alarming because it suggests that these types of attacks are being carried out on a mass scale.
At the time, users in 92 countries were separately warned by the company about the “mercenary spyware” with a nearly identical message to the one sent in July. The company is aware of these attacks based on its own data and internal research.
Such warnings have been made by the company specifically for Pegasus-related activities since at least 2021. The NSO Group platform is spyware that accesses files, messages, and personal data, and there is evidence that it is being used by governments to secretly spy on dissidents.
Anyone who receives this alert should contact Spade’s dedicated support page for these situations, where the user is instructed to contact local authorities as well as enable Lock Mode on the iPhone.
“We cannot provide information about what prompted us to issue threat notifications because this could help those responsible for state-funded mercenary spyware attacks adapt their behavior to avoid detection in the future,” the company said.
Source: Tec Mundo
I’m Ben Stock, a highly experienced and passionate journalist with a career in the news industry spanning more than 10 years. I specialize in writing content for websites, including researching and interviewing sources to produce engaging articles. My current role is as an author at Gadget Onus, where I mainly cover the mobile section.
