Apple warns German ministers and MPs their iPhones were targeted by spyware

Germany's digital minister Karsten Wildberger has confirmed that members of the Bundestag and the federal government have received Apple warnings that their iPhones may have been targeted by spyware. Speaking on ARD's "Bericht aus Berlin" on Sunday, Wildberger said there had been "a notification from Apple that certain devices may have been compromised with so-called spyware". According to a letter from the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) seen by the minister, the alerts began reaching the affected phones on 29 October.

Apple's threat notifications appear on the iPhone's lock screen, in its settings, and by email. The company reserves them for users it believes have been individually targeted by "mercenary spyware", which it describes as "vastly more sophisticated than regular cybercriminal activity" and harder to detect and prevent — while noting that the vast majority of users will never be targeted. The word "mercenary" is precise: these tools are built to order and sold to paying customers, and the notification tells the target that they were hunted, not who paid for the hunt.

The capabilities explain the urgency. According to the BSI, spyware of this kind can read messages, including those sent on encrypted apps, along with calls, contacts, calendars and location data, and can switch on the phone's microphone and camera. End-to-end encryption protects the message in transit; this software reads it at the destination.

The alerts do not show whether an attack succeeded, so the BSI has advised those affected to assume their devices are compromised and treat them accordingly. Wildberger said the agency had "reacted super quickly" and written to everyone affected about what to do. The detection itself runs in one direction: Apple discovers the targeting and informs the user, whose own device can tell them nothing.

Wildberger did not say how many politicians had received the alerts, or who they were. Neither Apple nor the German authorities have said who may be behind the attack.