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Germany says lawmakers' iPhones may have been targeted by spyware
Germany's cybersecurity agency said members of parliament and other public figures received Apple alerts that their iPhones may have been targeted by government-backed spyware, TechCrunch reported.
- New headline Was: “Germany says lawmakers’ iPhones may have been hacked with spyware”
- Our desk filed its story
Germany's federal cybersecurity office said over the weekend that members of the Bundestag and other unnamed notable people had received Apple warnings that their iPhones may have been targeted in cyberattacks, TechCrunch reported1.
The agency, known as the BSI, issued the note days after Apple began sending threat notifications to people it believes may have been targeted by government-backed spyware, according to TechCrunch1.
German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Berlin was "taking the incident and the warning very seriously," TechCrunch reported, citing the Financial Times1.
Kornelius did not say who in the federal government had been targeted, including whether Chancellor Friedrich Merz was among them, according to that account1.
Apple periodically sends threat notifications to people it thinks may have been targeted by spyware that can steal messages, location data and other information, often via zero-click exploits that do not require opening a link or file, TechCrunch reported1.
Apple does not attribute attacks to specific governments or say whether a phone was actually compromised1.
For that reason, the BSI said anyone who receives an Apple threat notification "should therefore assume that their device may have been compromised"1.
People outside Germany also received recent alerts, TechCrunch said1.
Beirut-based filmmaker Radwan Mortada said on X that he received a new notice that Apple had detected another attack against his device, after a spyware attack in 20211.
The notice Mortada received said Apple's latest batch of threat notifications went out to users in 99 countries, according to TechCrunch1.
It is unclear who is behind the latest round of attacks or which government may have orchestrated the targeting, TechCrunch reported1.
TechCrunch said governments rarely build such tools themselves and often buy them from private vendors, the best known being Israel's NSO Group, and that Germany's BKA was reported to have bought access to Pegasus in 20191.
