Apple again warns activists and journalists about state malware
Apple has again discovered that certain people have been attacked by "government-sponsored spyware". They are EU citizens.
Attack on users (symbolic image): Apple has detected attacks.
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Apple has sent warnings to several citizens of the European Union that state-sponsored actors have presumably attempted to attack their devices. This was reported by the IT blog TechCrunch last week. According to the information, a whole group of users were alerted by the iPhone company, and it was not just the EU that was affected –, but over 100 countries. However, only two of the victims, a "New Right" activist in the Netherlands and a journalist from Italy, have spoken out publicly. It is still unknown how serious the attacks were and who was behind them.
Apple warns on various channels
Apple had already publicized spyware attacks on its users in the past. Apple sends messages via iMessage as well as to the email address stored in iCloud. In addition, information is displayed when logging into the official Apple account website. The company also refers to civil society offers of help and explains how users can activate the lockdown mode, for example, which can make certain forms of attack more difficult.
Ciro Pellegrino, one of the two known victims who writes for the online newspaper Fanpage.it, said that Apple had told him that he had been targeted by spyware. He did not know who had attacked him or why. Fanpage.it had already been targeted by unknown actors before. A colleague of Pellegrino's received a corresponding notification from WhatsApp in the spring, according to which an attempt was apparently being made to carry out an attack using spyware from Paragon Solutions. Following this notification, two more Italian citizens went public, this time refugee activists.
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Update to iOS 18.4.1 quickly
Eva Vlaardingerbroek from the Netherlands, who was also affected, posted screenshots of Apple's message. The company asked those affected to "take the warning seriously" as they were "very sure". "This attack is likely specifically targeting you because of who you are or what you do." Vlaardingerbroek wrote that she did "not want to be intimidated". Neither Pellegrino nor Vlaardingerbroek gave TechCrunch any further details about the incident. It can be assumed that more victims will come forward in the coming weeks.
It remains unclear whether Apple has actually managed to fend off the attacks. Among other things, the notification mentions the spyware product Pegasus. Apple recommends those impacted to update to iOS 18.4.1 as soon as possible, which recently closed critical security vulnerabilities (macOS and other Apple operating systems were also affected).
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