Apple, the world’s leading technological company, has cautioned users in India and 91 other countries about the potential of falling victim to a “mercenary spyware attack.”
The warning came after the company detected attempts to “remotely compromise the iPhone,” as stated in an email notification seen by Reuters.
Described as rare and highly sophisticated, mercenary spyware attacks surpass typical cyber-criminal activities or malware, according to the notification email.
Apple has been sending out similar threat notifications multiple times a year since 2021, reaching users in over 150 countries globally, the email noted.
In October 2023, Indian lawmakers shared screenshots on social media of a notification from Apple, stating, “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.” However, the company clarified that it did not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.
Recently, India Today reported that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issued a warning after discovering a “remote code execution vulnerability” in Apple devices. This vulnerability could allow hackers to remotely access iPhones and iPads running on iOS and iPadOS versions prior to 17.4.1 and 16.7.7, respectively.
