Is Your iPhone at Risk? Apple Warns Data Theft Possible Without New Update

Apple has released a critical support document today warning users to update their iPhones immediately to protect against newly discovered web-based attacks.

Security researchers identified that malicious web content is being used to target older, out-of-date versions of iOS. According to Apple, if a user on an older version visits a compromised website, “the data on your iPhone might be at risk of being stolen.”

The company stated it “thoroughly investigated these issues” and “released software updates as quickly as possible” to disrupt the vulnerabilities. Apple emphasizes that “keeping your software up to date is the single most important thing you can do to maintain the security of your Apple products,” noting that devices running the latest software were never at risk from these specific attacks.

For users on older hardware, Apple released special patches for iOS 15 and iOS 16 on March 11, 2026. However, those still running iOS 13 or iOS 14 are being told they “must update to iOS 15 to receive these protections” and should expect a “Critical Security Update” alert on their screens within the next few days.

While Apple Safe Browsing in Safari blocks the known malicious domains by default, the company suggests that anyone unable to update should “consider enabling Lockdown Mode” to provide an extra layer of protection against these threats.

The devices that can expect the Critical Security Update alert are the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone SE (1st Gen), and iPod touch (7th Gen). Yes, these are pretty old devices.

Just yesterday we learned about Google uncovered how a hacking tool named DarkSword (others include the Coruna tool) can compromise iPhones running older versions of iOS. Again, the best thing you can do is keep your device up to date with the latest software updates.