The notification appears directly on the iPhone lock screen and flags a targeted attack: Apple has already reached users in more than 150 countries since 2021
Apple sent a new series of push notifications on Thursday 13 August 2026 to users in 110 countries, warning them that they had been targeted by mercenary spyware typically deployed by governments. The notification appears directly on the iPhone lock screen and prompts the user to take action to protect their data and device.
According to the updated support article published by Apple, the company has revised the user experience to make access to operational instructions more immediate. Notifications are also sent by email and upon sign-in to the Apple account. Since 2021, when the alert system was introduced, Apple has reached users in more than 150 countries. The notification opens directly to a screen with support contacts and recommends enabling Lockdown Mode, which Apple says has not recorded a single confirmed compromise on devices where it was active.
John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at Citizen Lab, was the first to flag the new wave of alerts in a thread on X, noting that push notifications improve visibility compared with previous communications. Scott-Railton stated that “Notifications create a signal that a community is under attack: people receive an alert, some seek help, and an investigation often follows that brings many more cases to light.” He cited the Polish scandal over Pegasus use by the previous government as an example of an investigation triggered precisely by Apple notifications, a subject also examined in Cybersecurity in the AI era.
