Apple informed a few iPhone users in India that there was a chance that a "mercenary spyware attack" akin to Pegasus was targeting their device and attempting to take over remotely.

People with knowledge of the situation claim that this is the second such notification that the corporation has given to subscribers in 98 other countries, including India. Apple has been sending these warnings to consumers in over 150 countries since 2021.

Apple stated in the warning notice message that "mercenary spyware attacks, such as those using Pegasus from the NSO Group, are exceptionally rare and vastly more sophisticated than regular cybercriminal activity or consumer malware."

Apple also stated that assaults like the ones that are installed on the targeted iPhone users' devices "cost millions of dollars and are individually deployed against a very small number of people, but the targeting is ongoing and global" in its most recent danger advisory.

Until the time of publishing, Apple and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) have not responded to emails requesting information on the most recent wave of notifications.

Numerous vulnerabilities in Apple's operating system for the iPhone and iPad were discovered in April of this year by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In), particularly with regard to the company's main products like the Safari web browser.

Then, the government's leading cybersecurity organization stated that vulnerabilities in the iPadOS and Safari web browsers prior to version 17.4.1 may let attackers "execute arbitrary code" on the devices they were targeting.

A similar alert alerting consumers of a "state-sponsored" attack on their devices was delivered by Apple to subscribers in other countries, including India, in October 2023. However, the US-based business has not identified the specific state actor responsible for the attacks.