Apple Alerts Users in 92 Nations To Mercenary Spyware Attacks (techcrunch.com) 16
Apple sent threat notifications to iPhone users in 92 countries on Wednesday, warning them that may have been targeted by mercenary spyware attacks. From a report: The company said it sent the alerts to individuals in 92 nations at 12pm Pacific Time Wednesday. The notification, which TechCrunch has seen, did not disclose the attackers' identities or the countries where users received notifications.
"Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID -xxx-," it wrote in the warning to affected customers. "This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it's never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning -- please take it seriously," Apple added in the text.
"Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID -xxx-," it wrote in the warning to affected customers. "This attack is likely targeting you specifically because of who you are or what you do. Although it's never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning -- please take it seriously," Apple added in the text.
Deja vu? (Score:2, Offtopic)
Honeypot (Score:3)
Re: Honeypot (Score:2)
You think security research firms don't have their own honey pot devices, some real and some virtual?
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Re: Honeypot (Score:2)
How do you know that the notification is genuine? (Score:2)
Next up in the news Hackers issue false notifications to all iphone users...
On the one side we are told to treat all incoming messages as suspicious, and then on the other hand we are notifying of imminent threats with message notifications... what could possible go wrong?
Re:How do you know that the notification is genuin (Score:4, Insightful)
What went wrong, from the very beginning, was that we gave our lives away to private interests. "Who cares if they reading my browsing history" flew out the window now that you basically cannot function in modern society without a mobile phone. Banks are switching to mandatory 2FA and touting it as if it's the greatest step we have taken yet towards a private and secure future, but what that means it that anyone who gets access to your phone gets access to your entire life.
Modern "connected" society is looking more and more like that quote from WOPR... "The winning move is not to play".
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If the notification was fake, then it becomes real.
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Came here thinking the same! This sounds so much like the examples of phishing messages we are warned to ignore that any encouragement to "take this seriously", if anyone listens to that, is going to result in more people caught in phishing attempts. IMHO, the notification should instruct people to find and navigate to a proper site/utility/whathaveyou to check for such issues/notifications; Something like, go into your settings, security notifications panel, and review any warnings there, and also warn the
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In this case, the “The company said it sent the alerts...at 12pm Pacific Time Wednesday” would be a pretty good indication that if you received a notice from “Apple” at that exact moment that it’s probably legitimate. I agree that your advice/question is valid in general, but these users have confirmation.
Also, there was no call to action, other than to be aware and be careful, so there’s no risk of phishing, which is a hallmark of legitimate messages.
Your Apple.id.pwnd Account May Have... (Score:1)
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We can't protect you so we're warning you now... (Score:2)
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