APPLE ALERTS EXPLOIT DEVELOPER THAT HIS IPHONE WAS TARGETED WITH GOVERNMENT SPYWARE

Summary from the TLDR InfoSec newsletter

A former Trenchant (L3Harris subsidiary) iOS exploit developer received an Apple threat notification in March indicating his personal iPhone was targeted with mercenary spyware, potentially marking the first documented case of spyware developers being targeted by their own tools. The developer, pseudonymously called Jay Gibson, was fired from Trenchant weeks earlier after being accused of leaking Chrome zero-days despite working exclusively on iOS exploits, which he and former colleagues deny. Security professionals should note that Apple's threat notification system detects sophisticated targeting even when forensic analysis finds no infection traces, suggesting either failed attack attempts or increasingly stealthy spyware that leaves minimal forensic evidence.