You’ve Been Targeted By Government Spyware. Now what?
Got a spyware alert? Here’s your step-by-step guide if targeted by government-grade hacking tools like Pegasus or Intellexa.
Matilda
You’ve Been Targeted By Government Spyware. Now what?
You Just Got a Spyware Warning—Now What? Imagine seeing this on your iPhone: “Apple detected a targeted mercenary spyware attack against your device.” For Jay Gibson—a former insider in the surveillance tech world—that message turned an ordinary Tuesday into a digital nightmare. Though he once worked on tools eerily similar to the spyware now targeting him, nothing prepared him for the panic of becoming the target. Like thousands before him, Gibson received one of the increasingly common warnings from Apple, Google, or WhatsApp about government-backed hacking attempts. But here’s the catch: these companies alert you—they rarely help you recover. If you’ve just gotten such a notification, you’re not alone. And yes, you should take it seriously. Credit: MirageC / Getty Images Why These Warnings Matter More Than Ever Apple, Google, and Meta (the parent company of WhatsApp) have ramped up efforts to notify users of what they call “mercenary spyware”—sophisticated tools often sold to governmen…
