This week, Apple sent notification to several individuals it believes were targeted by government spyware, according to two of the recipients.
Apple has previously sent similar alerts to individuals affected by spyware, advising them to reach out to a nonprofit organization that specializes in investigating cyberattacks. Other tech companies like Google and WhatsApp have also sent such notifications to their users in recent years.
As of Wednesday, only two people have publicly shared that they received these alerts from Apple. One of them is Ciro Pellegrino, an Italian journalist working for the online news outlet Fanpage. Pellegrino mentioned in an article that he received both an email and a text message from Apple on Tuesday, informing him that he had been targeted by spyware. According to Pellegrino, the message also stated that he wasn’t the only one affected.
“Today’s notification is being sent to affected users in 100 countries,” the message read, according to Pellegrino’s article.
“Did this really happen? Yes, it is not a joke,” Pellegrino wrote.
Following the first recipient, the next individual to receive an Apple notification was Eva Vlaardingerbroek. This Dutch right-wing advocate had recently shared a post on X platform just this past Wednesday.
According to a screenshot shared in a video by Vlaardingerbroek on X, an Apple alert notified that your iPhone has been targeted in a deliberate attack by mercenary spyware. This attack is aimed at you personally, based on your identity or profession. While absolute certainty cannot be guaranteed when identifying such attacks, Apple has great confidence in this warning and urges you to take it seriously.
In response to the notification, Vlaardingerbroek stated that it was clearly an effort to intimidate and silence her.
TechCrunch’s request for comment went unanswered by both Pellegrino and Vlaardingerbroek.
The specific spyware campaign behind the Apple notifications has not yet been identified. Last year, Apple informed users in multiple countries on two separate occasions that they had been targeted by an unspecified spyware threat.
There was no immediate response from Apple to the request for comment.
Pellegrino is the second Italian journalist this year to be informed of being the intended recipient of this form of malware, also known as “mercenary” spyware, as it is typically created by corporations and then sold to governments.
In February, WhatsApp informed Francesco Cancellato, Pellegrino’s colleague at Fanpage, that the activities of a spyware company targeting his device had been stopped.
According to WhatsApp, the spyware used against Cancellato was created by Paragon Solutions, an Israeli company. Citizen Lab, a longstanding digital rights organization that specializes in investigating spyware, has confirmed their ongoing investigation into these targeted attacks on WhatsApp users.
Following Cancellato’s revelation, two additional Italian individuals associated with Mediterranea Saving Humans, a non-profit organization dedicated to aiding immigrant rescue efforts, also revealed that they were among the targets of Paragon.
According to reports, Paragon ended its partnership with the Italian government after these disclosures came to light.
