Panu Wongchaum and Fanny Potkin

BANGKOK, (Reuters) – Apple Inc (NASDAQ) sent Wednesday messages to six Thai researchers and activists who were critical of the government. They warned them that their iPhones may have been attacked by state-sponsored attackers. This was according to the alerts and activists reviewed by Reuters.

Apple and Thailand’s Digital Ministry have not yet responded to requests for comment.

Prajak Kongkirati is a Bangkok-based political scientist. He said that he received two email alerts from Apple informing him it believed his iPhone, iCloud, and iCloud accounts were being targeted. Also, a threat notification was placed on his Apple account.

Sarinee Atchanontkul, a Thai activist and researcher from Legal Monitoring group iLaw claimed that they were sent similar emails. A rapper, a politician and a politician against the government all posted screenshots to their social media accounts.

They are all perceived to be critical of the Thai government.

They warned that if your device was compromised by an attacker state-sponsored, they could be able remote access to your sensitive data, communications, and even the camera or microphone.

Apple has filed a lawsuit against NSO Group in Israel and OSY Technologies, its parent company OSY Technologies. The suit alleges that NSO Group used its Pegasus spyware to spy on Apple’s users. [L4N2SE31T]

Apple released a statement Tuesday claiming that NSO groups had produced “state-sponsored surveillance tech” that was aimed at “very few users”.

Apple alerts Wednesday did not indicate whether it believed that Pegasus was targeting Thais.

Citizen Lab, an Internet security organization, has identified a Pegasus spyware user in Thailand.

The architects of the coup in 2014 are still in control of Thailand’s government, despite a 2019 election which its opponents claim was biased in favor the military.

The coup leader Prayuth Chanocha has repeatedly denied these claims. However, he has been the subject of months-long anti-government protests.

The government’s handling of the Coronavirus Pandemic, as well as its lack thereof, has been criticized.