Apple users urged to check their iPhone settings immediately after concerns of 'extremely sophisticated attack'

iPhone users are being urged to check their settings in case they are left vulnerable to a cyber-attack without realizing.

The pesky thing about technology is that it’s prone to vulnerabilities that could see users’ having their sensitive information leaked without ever noticing a thing.

But Apple is now urging all customers to check their settings and to download the latest version of iOS 18 to prevent this from happening.

Having announced an 'important' update, it confirmed that the update will feature 'security fixes' for the iPhones.

"This update provides important security fixes and is recommended for all users," Apple said.

Apple is urging users to update their iPhones (Getty Stock Images)

The iOS 18.6.2 is simple to access and can be found by going to Settings and selecting General and Software Update.

Apple recently confirmed that it's aware of a report that sheds light on data that may have been exploited in an ‘extremely sophisticated’ attack against some users.

While most iPhone users will be safe, the company warns that the new update will ensure that everyone who updates should remain threat free.

Apple said on its website the vulnerability could mean that 'processing a malicious image file may result in memory corruption', adding that 'Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals'.

Apple revealed the new update is compatible with 'iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later'.

The update can be found in Settings (Getty Stock Images)

This flaw isn’t the first to be noted this year as in May, an expert issued a warning as millions of people's emails and passwords were leaked.

Data-breach hunter and security researcher Jeremiah Fowler said there was a major Elastic database of users’ data, including 184 million login credentials for Google, Apple, Facebook, Instagram and even Netflix.

Then, in June, it was reported that billions of passwords were leaked in the ‘largest breach’ ever recorded.

According to researchers at Cybernews, 16 billion passwords relating to Apple, Facebook, government services and more were leaked just after Google advised its users to change their passwords to avoid any hacks.

The Cybernews group also said there were ‘30 exposed datasets containing from tens of millions to over 3.5 billion records each’.

Previously in July, Apple pushed out a fresh update for iPhones, iOS 18.6, with a package of 29 security fixes, to patch serious holes against attacks.

According to Apple’s support page, many of the issues relate to WebKit - the engine that powers Safari.

iOS 18.6 also fixes a weakness in CoreMedia Playback to stop apps gaining access to sensitive user data.

Now the new flaw exposing Apple’s ImageIO framework has been noted, updating to the latest iOS should keep users safe from all known vulnerabilities.