Apple is warning potential victims of spyware attacks, according to several alleged recipients of the messages. At the time of this writing, there were at least two people who confirmed that they had received a message from Apple, and the warning itself states that users in 100 countries have received similar warnings. The company does not provide any specifics on how many people may have been targeted or where the attacks are coming from.
According to TechCrunch, one of the recipients of the warning is Italian journalist Ciro Pellegrino, who works for an online news outlet called Fanpage in his home country. The other (as far as we know) is the Dutch right-wing commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, who published screenshots and a video of the alleged warning message on X.
According to Vlaardingerbroek, Apple informed her that it had detected a targeted attack by mercenary spyware on her iPhone. The message she says she received read, “This attack is likely targeted at you because of who you are and what you do. While you can never be absolutely certain when detecting such attacks, Apple places a lot of trust in this warning – please take it seriously.”
The warning does not specify where the alleged spyware attack originated, but Vlaardingerbroek claims that Apple used the Pegasus software from Israeli cyber-weapons company NSO Group as an example. She also claims that this attack, if true, is likely an attempt to intimidate her into silence.
Apple’s official threat alert guidelines match the screenshots from Vlaardingerbroek’s video, which also explains that “ransomware attacks cost millions of dollars and often have a short shelf life, making them much harder to detect and prevent. The vast majority of users will never be targeted by such attacks.” The same guidelines state that targeted users will be notified through a warning at the top of the page when they log into their Apple account, as well as by email and iMessage using the email addresses and phone numbers associated with that account.
Last year, users of Apple devices in 92 countries received similar warnings about spyware attacks, and since 2021, in more than 150 countries. But Apple did not provide more detailed information about how many people are exposed to such attacks, indicating only the number of countries in which it has contacted affected users.
