TECHNOMALIST
Apple sent a new batch of threat notifications on Friday to customers in 110 countries, alerting them that they may have been targeted with powerful “mercenary spyware,” according to reporting by TechCrunch. The alerts produced an unusually large number of public and private reports over the weekend.
Access Now, a digital rights group that operates a helpline Apple recommends to spyware victims, saw a record number of people reach out for help starting Friday, said Mohammed Al-Maskati, director of the organization's investigative team. He told TechCrunch that the volume was 30 to 40 percent higher than what typically follows an Apple notification, and included individuals who had received prior alerts. Cybersecurity firm iVerify also confirmed an influx of Apple threat notifications.
Among those who spoke publicly was a soldier in Ukraine's armed forces fighting Russia, who requested anonymity to protect himself. He initially thought the alert was a scam before verifying it with Apple. The soldier told TechCrunch he was surprised to be targeted, saying he did not think he was important enough, but was flattered; he also said other Ukrainian military personnel had received the same notification and some were worried. Ukraine's Computer Emergency Response Team did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at The Citizen Lab, described the scale and geographic diversity of public reports as “pretty unprecedented.” He told TechCrunch that for every public notification there is a larger “notification iceberg” that the public will never see, suggesting something bigger is going on. The volume may also be linked to Apple's new notification methods: starting this year, users are alerted on the iPhone lock screen, in Settings, via email, and when logging into their Apple Account on the web. Al-Maskati said the new method has made it harder for users to ignore the issue.
Apple did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment. Experts advise anyone receiving such a notification to take it seriously. Apple and others suggest enabling Lockdown Mode, a security feature that makes devices harder to hack; Apple has said it is not aware of anyone with Lockdown Mode enabled being hacked.
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