In a statement released on Friday, Apple announced that it has sent a new round of network threat notifications to users in 84 countries in an effort to protect them from monitoring threats, marking the latest initiative by the American tech giant.
According to reports from Reuters, Apple is one of several tech companies that regularly issue warnings to users when they are deemed at risk of state-sponsored hacker attacks. The alerts were issued on December 2nd, but the statement did not provide specific details about the monitoring or the organization behind the surveillance, nor did it mention the number of users affected.
Previous rounds of warnings have drawn media attention and prompted investigations from various government agencies, including the European Union. Senior EU officials have previously been targeted by spyware attacks.
Apple’s statement, along with the 84 countries covered in the latest notification, brings the total number of countries receiving threat notifications from Apple to over 150.
According to Apple’s website, certain users may be individually targeted for employment spyware attacks based on their identity or actions. The threat notifications aim to alert and assist these users. These attacks are far more complex than conventional cybercrime activities and consumer malicious software, as employment spyware attackers leverage specialized resources to target a very small number of specific individuals and their devices.
Apple stated that, based on public reports and research from civil society organizations, tech companies, and the media, these highly targeted and costly attacks are typically associated with state actors, including private companies that develop employment spyware on behalf of state actors.