Apple Warns IPhone Users In 98 Countries About Paid Spyware Attacks

Apple has warned a large number of iPhone users in 98 countries (photo: x @apple)

JAKARTA - Apple has warned a large number of iPhone users in 98 countries that it appears to have been targeted for a "paid spyware attack" that could compromise almost any personal data on their devices.

Apple stated that they could never be 100% sure in their conclusion, but had a high level of confidence that this warning was true. Apple also urged message recipients to take this security warning seriously.

Although the iPhone is very secure, there is always a constant battle between Apple and companies investing millions of dollars to identify and exploit vulnerabilities.

The most famous of them is NSO, with its software, Pegasus, capable of accessing almost all of the personal data stored on the iPhone. The company pays a large amount of money to hackers who find vulnerabilities that can be used for clickless exploits - where no user interaction is required by the target.

Only accepting a certain iMessage - without opening it or interacting with it - can make the iPhone completely compromised, without the owner's knowledge.

The company sells the software to governments, including some with very poor human rights records. These governments often target opposition politicians, human rights activists, journalists, and lawyers.

Apple is of course working hard to cover this vulnerability as soon as they notice it, but it could take some time.

One of the steps the company has taken for the time being is to try to detect when an iPhone has been compromised (without needing to know how this happened), and warn the victim.

TechCrunch reports that Apple has just issued one of these warnings to victims suspected of being in a total of 98 countries.

Apple detects that you are on target of a pay spyware attack trying to compromise your Apple ID-xx-related iPhone," the company wrote in a warning to affected customers.

"This attack is likely to target you specifically because of who you are or what you are doing. While it is never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such an attack, Apple has high confidence in this warning, please take it seriously," Apple added in the text.

Victims are usually advised to use Lockdown Mode.

Apple is careful not to reveal anything about how they detect when an iPhone has been compromised, but most likely iOS includes a code that regularly checks the integrity of the existing protection. When the device fails this check, a warning is sent to Apple, which then warns the phone owner.

This means the company can detect that the iPhone has been compromised before knowing how this happened.