California: US technology giant Apple has warned its users in 92 countries including India about the risk of ‘mercenary spyware’ attacks like Pegasus on iPhones. The company has said in its notification that iPhone users can become victims of attacks with the help of hired spyware. Apple has said that through this malware attack, attackers can gain access to users’ devices and cause harm to them. Like Israel’s controversial Pegasus malware, Mercenary Spyier could threaten iPhones. Apple has not said whether any users were at risk from the latest attack.
Apple says the mercenary’s spyware is designed similarly to NSO Group’s controversial Pegasus malware, making it difficult to detect. In the notification sent by Apple to its users, it has been said that this malware is completely different and more dangerous than the malware used for other cyber attacks. It is used to attack users from a distance.
The company has updated its support page in India and informed users on how they can protect their smartphones from mercenary spyware attacks. Apple has said that the new spyware and malware can be used to attack iPhone users remotely. Attackers can attack devices depending on who the user is or what they can do. However, it is not known exactly how many users in India have received this notification from Apple.
What’s different about the new malware is that instead of targeting random devices, the attacker can specify which Apple IDs target them. This spyware is quite different from normal cyber criminal activity or consumer malware. This spyware can cause losses worth millions and can even target a small group of people. The company has warned its users and advised them not to click on unknown links nor share their information. The company said in an email notification that such spying tools are targeting people around the world on a regular basis.
This is the second example of Apple warning its users about a major attack. The company had given such warning to its users last year also. Earlier last year, in October 2023, Apple had warned of government-sponsored attacks in many countries and India. However, the company did not share more information about this. The people to whom the company has sent the notification include opposition leaders from Congress leader Shashi Tharoor to AAP leader Raghav Chadha and Mahua Moitra of Trinamool Congress. The company warned them about the risk of possible government-sponsored spying attacks on their iPhones. This warning created a big controversy.
However, the company later clarified under pressure from the government that it had not talked about any specific government-sponsored attack. Apple has started sending notifications about such risks from 2021. When the company sent such notifications last year, 20 Indians received such notifications on their iPhones.
– Apple removed the term ‘government sponsored’ attacks from notifications
Bengaluru: Apple has sent a notification to its users in 92 countries including India, warning them of ‘mercenary spyware attacks’. However, the company has removed the words ‘government-inspired attack’ from this notification regarding the malware attack. The company used the term ‘government-inspired attack’ last year when it warned its users about malware attacks like the Pegasus spyware. However, this caused huge controversy in India and the company later changed its language under pressure from the government. Taking a lesson from this case, Apple has this time avoided using the term ‘government-inspired attack’ in warning its users about the risk of spyware attacks. Instead, the company has said that this spyware malware is designed to selectively target users.
