Skip to main content

Uncontrollable iPhone calls to 911 last fall could have been a huge cyberattack

Repeated calls to the 911 emergency number may be cause for an emergency in and of itself. Last October, an iOS exploit resulted in a number of iPhones dialing 911 over and over again without any user input. For 12 hours on October 25 and October 26, at least 12 states including California, Florida, and Texas saw what is now said to be “the largest-ever cyberattack on the country’s emergency-response system,” according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

The 911 system has been in place for nearly five decades, first becoming the official emergency number of the United States in 1968. And with the age of the technology comes fears of its weaknesses, and the October cyberattack served only to underscore those concerns. “I don’t want to be alarmist, but it’s an emerging crisis,” retired Rear Adm. David Simpson told the Journal. For three years, Simpson oversaw emergency management and cybersecurity at the FCC during the Obama administration.

Recommended Videos

It now appears that the thousands of 911 calls received during that short time frame in October can be traced back to one tweeted link, which set off the iPhone exploit. That tweeted link was clicked on 117,502, and each time someone clicked, it led to a 911 call. Worse still, if users hung up their iPhones, the hack would just force another 911 call — the only way to stop it was to turn off the device completely.

“It was hard for investigators to trace the cyberattack as it cascaded across the country,” the Journal reported. “Twitter users who saw the link shared it with their followers, who shared it with their followers, turning the malware into a runaway virus.” The concern now, of course, is that another more targeted attack using the same technique could present a huge problem.

While there are 6,500 911 call centers across the country, just a small fraction of them (420 to be exact) have a cybersecurity defense that would protect against this sort of hack. Luckily, Apple is working on a fix. “The ability to dial and reach a 911 operator quickly is critical to public safety,” the company said. “The dialing feature in this instance was intentionally misused by some people with no regard for public safety. To prevent further abuse, we’re putting safeguards in place and have also worked with third-party app developers to prevent this behavior in their apps.”

Lulu Chang
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
These three iOS 26 beta features are my favorite so far
The Liquid Design lock screen on the iOS 26 developer beta 1 running on the iPhone 16 Pro

For fans of the Apple ecosystem, it’s been an incredible week. Apple’s annual WWDC 2025 keynote revealed a whole new Liquid Glass design that’s unified across all its platforms. Also unified across all platforms is the numbering scheme, with iOS 26 designed to represent the year of release… plus one. 

The new platform doesn’t deliver one of the key things I asked for — multitasking, which is available on iPadOS 26 — but it does bring several new features that make the iPhone far more usable. 

Read more
Will my iPhone get iOS 26? Here’s every supported model
We've got the full list of iOS 26 supported devices - find out if you're getting the new iPhone update
iOS 26 features on a series of iPhone screens

Apple announced iOS 26 at WWDC 2025, and the new iPhone update comes with a fresh new 'Liquid Glass' look and plenty of features - and there are loads of iOS 26 supported devices, which is great news.

And no, you haven't missed a volley of updates since iOS 18 in 2024. Apple has skipped a bunch of numbers, so instead of giving us iOS 19 in 2025, we got iOS 26 alongside iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26 and tvOS 26. In short, Apple's brought its operating system numbering into line. Nice.

Read more
3 big iOS 19 changes that I hope Apple reveals at WWDC 2025
iOS 19 sample logo.

We’re less than two days away from Apple’s big WWDC 2025 keynote, where the company will reveal new versions of each of its software platforms. One of the biggest changes this year is the expected shift from iOS 19 to iOS 26, with new versions of macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS also set to follow suit. We're also expecting to see the evolution of Apple Health, including a new AI doctor and Health subscription.

iOS 26, if it is to be named that, is expected to introduce one of the biggest evolutions in design for Apple software since the first iPhone was launched. Inspired by visionOS and the Apple Vision Pro, it’s expected to be a monumental redesign, but I hope that Apple also takes the time to make a few improvements.

Read more