SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 14 -- The notification arrived without ceremony: a message from Apple, occupying the same row on the lock screen as calendar alerts and unread texts, informing the recipient that their iPhone had been targeted by mercenary spyware. This week, that message appeared on devices in 110 countries.

Apple confirmed Thursday that it had issued a fresh wave of mercenary spyware threat notifications to users across iPhones, iPads, and Macs, the largest single notification round in a program that has, since its 2021 launch, touched more than 150 countries in total, TechCrunch reported.

The notification text has not changed. It reads: "Apple detected a mercenary spyware attack targeted at your iPhone." It is a sentence calibrate...