Apple drops term ‘state-sponsored’ attacks from its threat notification policy

Apple has warned its users in India and 91 other countries that they were possible victims of a “mercenary spyware attack,” ditching the phrase “state-sponsored” it used in its previous alerts to refer to such malware attacks.
Reuters:
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The company had previously said on its website that its threat notifications were designed to inform and assist users who might have been targeted by “state-sponsored attackers.”
But Apple’s latest update posted on the website on Wednesday said the threat notifications were designed to help users “who might have been individually targeted by mercenary spyware attacks.”
It also noted that such attacks have been historically associated with state actors, including private companies developing mercenary spyware on their behalf, such as Pegasus spyware from Israeli firm NSO Group.
Apple’s removal of the term “state-sponsored” from its description of threat notifications comes after it repeatedly faced pressure from the Indian government on linking such breaches to state actors, said a source with direct knowledge.
Apple held extensive talks with Indian officials before releasing the latest set of alerts, the source added. It was not clear if other governments have also raised similar concerns.

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MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s revised support page now reads:
Apple threat notifications are designed to inform and assist users who may have been individually targeted by mercenary spyware attacks.
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. Such attacks are vastly more complex than regular cybercriminal activity and consumer malware, as mercenary spyware attackers apply exceptional resources to target a very small number of specific individuals and their devices. Mercenary spyware attacks cost millions of dollars and often have a short shelf life, making them much harder to detect and prevent. The vast majority of users will never be targeted by such attacks.
According to public reporting and research by civil society organizations, technology firms, and journalists, individually targeted attacks of such exceptional cost and complexity have historically been associated with state actors, including private companies developing mercenary spyware on their behalf, such as Pegasus from the NSO Group. Though deployed against a very small number of individuals — often journalists, activists, politicians, and diplomats — mercenary spyware attacks are ongoing and global. Since 2021, we have sent Apple threat notifications multiple times a year as we have detected these attacks, and to date we have notified users in over 150 countries in total. The extreme cost, sophistication, and worldwide nature of mercenary spyware attacks makes them some of the most advanced digital threats in existence today. As a result, Apple does not attribute the attacks or resulting threat notifications to any specific attackers or geographical regions.
If Apple detects activity consistent with a mercenary spyware attack, it notifies the targeted users in two ways:
• A Threat Notification is displayed at the top of the page after the user signs into appleid.apple.com.
• Apple sends an email and iMessage notification to the email addresses and phone numbers associated with the user’s Apple ID.
These notifications provide additional steps that notified users can take to help protect their devices, including enabling Lockdown Mode.
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