Overview
- Apple sent a concentrated wave of high‑confidence threat notifications on Thursday to users it believes were individually targeted by mercenary spyware in 110 countries.
- The company updated how alerts appear by using the iPhone Lock Screen and Settings, email to the Apple Account address, and a banner on account.apple.com to make warnings harder to miss.
- Apple urges anyone who receives a notification to enable Lockdown Mode and to contact Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline for rapid-response assistance.
- Apple says it will not publicly attribute attacks or disclose technical triggers because that could help spyware vendors refine their methods, and it has notified people in more than 150 countries since 2021.
- Investigators reported a roughly 30 to 40 percent rise in helpline requests after the latest push, and researchers warn these costly, short-lived commercial spyware operations have typically been linked to state actors and private surveillance firms.