Apple sent a notification this week to several people who believe the company is targeting government spyware, according to the two targets.
In the past, Apple sent similar notifications to Spyware targets and victims, and directed them to contact nonprofits specializing in investigating such cyberattacks. Other tech companies, such as Google and WhatsApp, have been sending such notifications regularly to their users in recent years.
As of Wednesday, only two people had made the move to make it clear they were among those who received notifications from Apple this week.
One is Ciro Pellegrino, an Italian journalist who works for the online news outlet fan page. Pellegrino wrote in the article that he received an email and a text message from Apple on Tuesday. According to Pellegrino, the message said he was not the only person to be targeted.
“Today’s notifications are being sent to affected users in 100 countries,” according to a Pellegrino article, the message read.
“Did this really happen? Yes, that’s not a joke,” Peregrino wrote.
The second person to receive the Apple notification is Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a Dutch right-wing activist who posted on X on Wednesday.
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The Apple Alert, shown in a video posted by vlaardingerbroek to X, “Apple has detected a target mercantil spyware attack on the iPhone,” Apple Alert said.
In response to the notification, Vlaardingerbroek said this was “an attempt to blackmail me, clearly attempt to silence me.”
Neither Pellegrino nor Vlaardingerbroek responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
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Do you have more information about government hacking groups, zero-day developers, or spyware makers? From unprocessed devices and networks, you can safely contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai with a signal of +1 917 257 1382, via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or by email.
If known, it is not yet clear what spyware campaigns Apple notifications are related to. Last year, Apple notified users of dozens of countries that it targeted unspecified spyware.
Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Pellegrino is the second Italian journalist this year to be notified of being a target for this type of spyware. This is also sometimes called “mercian” spyware.
In February, WhatsApp notified Francesco Cancello, a colleague on Pellegrino’s fan page, that it had “stop the activity of a spyware company that believed to have attacked the device.”
In Cancellato’s case, according to WhatsApp, the spyware was created by Israeli company Paragon Solutions. Citizen Lab, a digital rights group that has been investigating Spyware for over a decade, has confirmed it is investigating these attacks targeting WhatsApp users.
After Cancerato came forward, two other Italians who work to save the Mediterranean, a non-governmental organisation that helps rescue migrants, also said they were Paragon’s targets.
Paragon reportedly severed ties with Italian government clients following these revelations.
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