Apple Notifies iPhone Users in 99 Countries of Spyware Attacks as Germany Launches Investigation: Report

Apple published a blog post earlier this year in August, providing details about its Threat Notifications system, which is aimed at alerting and assisting iPhone users about potential mercenary spyware attacks. The tech giant sends the alert to the user when it thinks that their device has come under attack, displaying the alerts on the Lock Screen and in the Settings app. The company regularly sends alerts to iPhone users when it suspects a spyware attack. Now, a report claims that the tech giant sent Threat Notifications to users in 99 countries, including Germany, where devices of multiple lawmakers were targeted by a Pegasus-like spyware.

Apple Reportedly Sends Spyware Alerts to German Lawmakers and Public Figures

Financial Times reports that Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) issued a notice to Bundestag lawmakers and other public figures that they should assume that their iPhone has been compromised as part of a government-backed mercenary spyware attack if they received a Threat Notification from Apple over the weekend. The tech giant reportedly started sending alerts last week, on October 29.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's spokesperson, Stefan Kornelius, told the Financial Times that the government is taking “the incident and the warning very seriously”. Germany's BSI has also launched an investigation into the wave of spyware attacks. The spyware was reportedly installed on the Apple devices by exploiting a zero-click vulnerability, which did not require the user to tap or open a link. The report highlights that the bad actors only needed the phone numbers of their targets.

The government has yet to reveal the name of the spyware. However, it is reportedly similar to the Pegasus spyware, developed by Israel's NSO Group. The Israeli firm claims that it only sells the surveillance tool to governments and other authorities. Such spyware allows attackers to read text messages, regardless of end-to-end encryption, contacts list, calendars, GPS location of the device, photos, and other stored documents.

However, Germany was not the only country where users received Apple's Threat Notifications. TechCrunch reports that the latest batch of Threat Notifications was sent to users in 99 countries. However, it is unclear whether the attacks in other regions were carried out by the same threat actor. Investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Radwan Mortada, in a post on X on Friday, said that he was one of the users to receive the Threat Notification via email. Mortada claims that he was also one of the targets of NSO's Pegasus between 2017 and 2021.