“Apple has detected that you are the victim of a hacker spyware attack that is attempting to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID,” TechCrunch quotes a message received by Apple smartphone users. – This attack is likely directed at you because of who you are or your activities. While it’s impossible to be absolutely certain when such attacks are detected, Apple has a lot of confidence in this warning. Please take it seriously.”
The notification, which TechCrunch journalists reviewed, does not specify any details about the attackers or the names of the countries whose users received such messages from the company.
As Reuters and TechCrunch note, earlier in such warnings, as well as in an article about them on the Apple support site, the company indicated that these were attacks by “state-sponsored” hackers. Now this phrase has disappeared from the text.
Now the company’s website, citing public research and journalistic reports, reports that “such complex and costly attacks on specific individuals have traditionally been carried out by state actors or private companies that develop commercial spyware for them, such as Pegasus from NSO Group.”
According to a Reuters source, changes were made to the text after Apple faced pressure from the Indian government. In the fall of 2023, opposition politicians in India accused the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of trying to hack their iPhones using spy equipment after receiving a notification from Apple. The company held talks with Indian officials before publishing the new warning, the agency’s source said.
In September 2023, the publisher and co-founder of Meduza, Galina Timchenko, said that her iPhone was infected with the Pegasus spyware, which allows access to the phone’s sound, camera and memory. This allegedly happened on February 10, 2023, when Timchenko participated in a closed meeting with employees of independent Russian media in Berlin.
Soon, the former editor-in-chief of the Baltia program also reported about the possible infection of Pegasus. Week” and the TV channel “Present Time” Evgeny Erlikh, General Director of “Novaya Gazeta Europe” Maria Epifanova and correspondent of “Novaya Gazeta Baltia” Evgeny Pavlov.
The Committee to Protect Journalists appealed to the Latvian authorities to conduct an investigation into this matter. Reporters Without Borders also demanded an explanation from the German authorities.
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2024-04-11 21:59:37