Apple on Thursday (August 13, 2026) sent out notifications to users across 110 countries, informing them that they may have been individually targeted by mercenary spyware attacks.

Researchers, investigators, and cybersecurity experts also confirmed an uptick in security notifications, with some sharing that affected users had reached out to them, according to the tech outlet TechCrunch.

Affected users will see an Apple Threat Notification alert, an email notification, or a threat notification banner.

According to guidance published on its site that same day, Apple explained the nature of mercenary attacks and how they differ from normal cyber crimes. The iPhone-maker also outlined how its threat notifications are delivered to users.

Targets for such attacks include journalists, activists, politicians, and diplomats, according to the company.

Apple said that it could not provide information about what caused it to issue threat notifications, as the information could help mercenary spyware attackers “adapt their behavior to evade detection in the future.”

The iPhone-maker did observe that such attacks have been associated with state actors, as well as the private companies developing mercenary spyware for them. One example was Pegasus from the NSO Group

The company noted that since 2021, it had sent Apple threat notifications when it detected such attacks and that it had notified users in over 150 countries in total.

“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 sophisticated than regular cybercriminal activity, 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,” said Apple, adding that the vast majority of users would never be targeted by such attacks.

Published - August 18, 2026 01:15 pm IST