Government Issues High Alert Warning: Update Your iPhone Immediately

Indian cyber agency Computer Emergency Response Team in India (CERT-In) has issued a high risk warning to all Apple users. The agency has found several vulnerabilities in Apple’s products that allow an attacker to gain access to sensitive information.

According to CERT, several new vulnerabilities could allow hackers to execute arbitrary code, bypass security restrictions, cause denial-of-service (DoS) conditions, bypass authentication, gain additional privileges, and perform spoofing attacks on a targeted system.

CERT-IN under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has also compiled a list of affected software.

– Apple iOS versions older than 17.1 and iPadOS versions older than 17.1

– Apple iOS versions older than 16.7.2 and iPados versions earlier than 16.7.2

– Apple 10S versions older than 15.8 and iPados versions prior to 15.8

– Apple macOS Sonoma versions 14.1

– Apple macOS Ventura versions 13.6.1

– Apple macOS Monterey versions 12.7.1

– Apple tvOS version 17.1

– Apple watchOS versions 10.1

– Apple Safari versions 17.1

CERT-In has advised all iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac and iPad users to protect themselves from possible hacking and data theft by updating their devices with the latest Apple firmware. People who want to protect their personal data should install the latest iOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and Safari updates as soon as possible.

The Cupertino-based tech giant has already released the update and you can install it by going to your device’s settings.

iPhone users can go to Settings > General > Software Update. The screen shows the currently installed iOS version and whether an update is available.

Apple released iOS 17.1 last week, which introduced a bunch of new features for iPhones running iOS 17. It also fixes several other bugs. It fixes an issue that could cause the Significant Location privacy setting to reset when moving or pairing an Apple Watch for the first time.