German lawmakers warned their iPhones may have been compromised by state‑backed spyware

Whoa! The German federal cybersecurity office (BSI) has sounded the alarm for members of the Bundestag and other high‑profile figures after Apple sent out threat notifications indicating possible spyware infections on their iPhones.

In a note released over the weekend, the BSI said it had learned that parliamentarians and unnamed notable individuals received Apple’s warning that their devices might have been targeted by sophisticated cyber‑attacks.

According to the Financial Times, German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius stated that Berlin is “taking the incident and the warning very seriously.” He did not disclose which federal officials were affected, nor confirm whether Chancellor Friedrich Merz was among them.

Apple’s “threat notifications” are dispatched to users it believes may have been exposed to spyware capable of stealing messages, location data and other sensitive information. The spyware often employs zero‑click exploits, which can infiltrate a phone without any action from the user.

Apple does not attribute the attacks to any specific government, nor does it confirm that a device has actually been compromised. Consequently, the BSI advises anyone who receives such a notification to assume their device may be at risk.

These alerts are not limited to Germany. Beirut‑based filmmaker Radwan Mortada posted on X that he received a new threat notification after a prior 2021 spyware incident, noting that Apple’s latest batch reached users in 99 countries.

The origin of this wave of spyware attacks remains unclear. While governments rarely develop these tools themselves, many purchase them from private “mercenary spyware” vendors such as Israel’s NSO Group, known for the Pegasus platform. Germany’s own federal criminal police office (BKA) reportedly acquired access to Pegasus in 2019.

Stay vigilant! The episode underscores the opaque nature of cyber‑espionage targeting civil‑society figures worldwide.