German Lawmakers' iPhones Targeted by Spyware: Cybersecurity Agency Tells Recipients of Apple Alerts to Assume Their Devices Are Compromised
Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has warned that several members of the Bundestag and other public figures have, since October 29, received threat notifications from Apple on their iPhones warning of attacks using so-called mercenary spyware. In an October 30 letter to Bundestag members and a November advisory, the BSI said it cannot determine whether the notifications indicate successful compromises or only attempted attacks, and that anyone who received one should assume their device may have been compromised.
Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger confirmed on the evening of November 1, on public broadcaster ARD, that members of the Bundestag and of the federal government had received Apple's spyware warnings. Government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said the German government was taking the incident and Apple's warning "very seriously," but he did not say which government members had received alerts or whether Chancellor Friedrich Merz was among them. Der Spiegel reported that those warned included members of the delegation that recently accompanied Merz on visits to Singapore, Japan and South Korea.
The BSI said mercenary spyware is commercially developed and has frequently been used by state actors against specific, targeted individuals. It can infect a device through so-called zero-click attacks, for example via a specially crafted message that requires no action by the recipient. Once a phone is compromised, attackers can read messages, including in encrypted apps, and access calls, contacts, calendars and location data.
Apple does not attribute the attacks to any government or confirm whether a device was actually infected. Its latest round of threat notifications went to users in 99 countries. The BSI noted that a genuine Apple warning never asks recipients to click links, open files, install apps or profiles, or share passwords and verification codes, and said recipients can report their case to the BSI Service Center.
Source: Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Germany
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：德国柏林的联邦议会大厦（国会大厦，资料图）。照片 CC BY-SA 4.0，作者 Daniel Schwen，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Reichstag building in Berlin, seat of the German Bundestag (file photo). CC BY-SA 4.0, by Daniel Schwen, via Wikimedia Commons.
