Ukrainian military serviceman received Apple warning about spyware attack
Apple sent a new wave of alerts to users in 110 countries about possible spyware attacks. Among those who received such a notification is a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and cybersecurity researchers report an unusually high number of inquiries after the latest mailing.
The company sent the alerts on August 14th to users who, according to its assessment, may have been targeted with so-called mercenary spyware. Such tools are usually used against specific individuals and can give attackers access to data on the device.
The director of the digital security helpline at Access Now, Mohammed Al-Maskati, told TechCrunch that after the new wave of alerts, the organization received a record number of inquiries. According to him, there were approximately 30-40% more than usual after similar Apple warnings.
The increase in such notifications was also confirmed by the cybersecurity company iVerify. Senior researcher at Citizen Lab John Scott-Railton called the scale and geography of public reporting about receiving the alerts unprecedented. Meanwhile, Apple did not disclose the exact number of users who received the alerts.
One of the recipients was a Ukrainian serviceman, whose name TechCrunch does not disclose for security reasons. Initially, he thought the notification might be fraudulent, but later verified its authenticity through Apple.
The serviceman also said he knows about other people in the Ukrainian army who received similar alerts. There is currently no official confirmation of the scale of such cases among Ukrainian military personnel: CERT-UA did not provide TechCrunch with a comment on the request.
Apple periodically warns users whom it considers targets of sophisticated spyware attacks. According to the company, since 2021 such alerts have been received by people in more than 150 countries.
This year, Apple expanded the ways of informing about the threat. Warnings can appear on the iPhone lock screen and in device settings, arrive by email linked to the Apple account, and also be displayed after logging into Apple Account via a browser.
To users who receive such a warning, Apple advises to take it seriously and strengthen device protection. Recommended measures include enabling Lockdown Mode, which restricts some functions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac to make the exploitation of sophisticated vulnerabilities more difficult.
Based on materials from: TechCrunch, Apple
