You have been warned. If your iPhone is not running one of two versions of iOS, you’re now at serious risk from new attacks targeting Apple’s devices. And Apple’s confirmed attack warnings keep coming at users (1,2). For most iPhone users, this means you must upgrade to iOS 26 immediately, if you have not done so already.
If you upgrade now or have done so recently, then your iPhone will have powered down and restarted to install the new software. Remember — when Apple warns you to update your iPhone, a restart is a key part of that. If you’re not running iOS 26.2 or iOS 18.7.3, then you need to perform that reboot manually. And you need to do that now.
Apple’s warning before the holidays that new spyware had been detected was accompanied by a nasty surprise for most users. Sticking to iOS 18 and updating to iOS 18.7.3 is not possible for any device (iPhone 11 or newer) able to run iOS 26.
There are conflicting reports as to how many users this affects. Some analyst data suggests more than half of all iPhones can update to iOS 26 but have not. Other data is more nuanced. What’s not in dispute, is that this is hundreds of millions of iPhones.
As I’ve warned, if you are holding onto iOS 18 and avoiding the iOS 26 upgrade, then you’re now at risk. That means you need to regularly reboot your phone to kill any malicious software running in the background. If the software is persistent, it will also restart, but the reboot won’t do you any harm.
But how you reboot is important. One European cyber agency has just echoed the NSA’s own device to “turn phones off and on” weekly. France’s ANSSI says “the complete shutdown of the device stops all processes and removes all software residing only in memory, such as a memory-based, non-persistent spyware.”
But the agency — equivalent to America’s CISA — also warns you should restart without using any form os software “reboot feature, as some spyware is able to simulate a reboot to deceive the user.” It’s an unlikely risk. But it’s the best practice advice.
ANSSI flags “spyware deployed with the use of a zero-click vulnerability,” the kind of exploit behind recent Apple and Google warnings, often delivered via stock messaging platforms. On your iPhone, that means iMessage. There is no behavioral defense that is guaranteed to prevent infection. You always need to run the latest version of iOS.
But a restart is good practice anyway. And if you are running outdated firmware, it’s critical and needs to be done regularly. Weekly — at least.
Apple offers two options that are triggered by iPhone hardware and are not fully in software. Either “press and hold either volume button and the side button until the power-off slider appears. Drag the slider, then wait 30 seconds for your device to turn off. If your device is frozen or unresponsive.”
If that doesn’t work, you can take a more forceful approach. “Press and quickly release the volume up button. Press and quickly release the volume down button. Press and hold the side button. When the Apple logo appears, release the side button.”
