Apple issues new spyware warning to iPhone users in 110 countries
Apple’s own data shows no known compromise of a device running Lockdown Mode, which shows Apple’s notification and the response are working, Boynton says.
Apple has issued a new spyware warning to iPhone users in 110 countries. The news comes after Reddit users reported they had received a "highly concerning" notification on 13 August, according to Bleeping Computer.
The spyware notifications have been sent before, but they may have looked slightly different, leading users to question if they were legitimate.
However, Apple has confirmed that the latest warning is indeed real.
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Apple says that as of 2026, it notifies targeted users directly on iPhone and via email sent from Apple Threat Notifications (threat-notifications@email.apple.com). "Notification types may vary based on the user's device model and software version," according to the iPhone maker, writing in a support document.
About the spyware threat notifications
It is not the first spyware threat notification sent by Apple. The iPhone maker has sent out the alerts numerous times, one of which was in December. I first covered the spyware alerts back in 2024, which I reported on Forbes at the time.
Apple threat notifications are "designed to inform and assist users who may have been individually targeted by mercenary spyware attacks, likely because of who they are or what they do," Apple says on its support page.
Mercenary spyware attacks "cost millions of dollars and often have a short shelf life, making them much harder to detect and prevent," Apple wrote, adding that the vast majority of users will never be targeted by such attacks.
Apple describes how its investigations "can never achieve absolute certainty," but Apple threat notifications "are high-confidence alerts that a user has been individually targeted by a mercenary spyware attack, and should be taken very seriously."
Since 2021, Apple has sent threat notifications multiple times a year as it has detected these attacks, and says that to date it has notified users in over 150 countries in total.
How iPhone spyware attacks work
Spyware — such as the NSO Group's Pegasus malware used to target users including the family of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi — usually arrives in the form of a "zero-click attack" that requires no interaction. This is usually a message sent to your iPhone via iMessage or WhatsApp containing an image.
The attacker, often a nation state adversary, takes advantage of one or more software flaws to orchestrate their attack.
Spyware is so dangerous because once it is on your iPhone, the attacker can see and hear everything you do — even via encrypted apps such as WhatsApp and Signal.
Could my iPhone be targeted by spyware?
A notification campaign spanning 110 countries "sounds alarming", but it's not a risk to the average iPhone user, says Adam Boynton, senior enterprise strategy manager at Jamf. "Mercenary spyware is precision tooling, meaning that people are targeted because of who they are, what they know, and who they talk to. These tools rely on zero-day exploits precisely because the iPhone's defences leave attackers no cheaper way in."
Apple's own data shows no known compromise of a device running Lockdown Mode, which shows Apple's notification and the response are working, Boynton says.
However, Boynton warns that the list of spyware targets does go beyond journalists and activists alone. "The economics of mercenary spyware mean the target list increasingly includes executives, negotiators, and anyone holding privileged access. If one of these notifications' lands on a work device, it should be treated as a security incident from the first minute. Action needs to be taken to preserve the device rather than wiping it, enable Lockdown Mode, and bring in expert help."
Apple iPhone spyware — what to do
Prevention is the best line of defense against Apple iPhone spyware. If you think you could be a target, it's a good idea to enable Lockdown Mode on your iPhone, which makes it almost impossible for the malware to hit your device.
At the same time, always apply Apple iOS updates as soon as they are available, to avoid adversaries taking advantage of these to plant spyware.
If you think you have already been targeted by spyware, you can sometimes disrupt it by turning your iPhone on and off again, but this won't get rid of it entirely. If it's on your device, the best thing you can do is get rid of your iPhone altogether.
