Apple Stomps on Leaked iPhone 18 Pro Videos

Earlier this month, we reported that confidential Apple documents had been exposed in a data breach suffered by Indian assembly partner Tata Electronics.

The breach resulted in Apple’s plans for upcoming devices being exposed on the internet, including specs for this year’s iPhone 18 Pro lineup. Now, Apple is cracking down on leaked video footage of those unreleased iPhone models.

Over the last day or so, video clips that claimed to show an iPhone 18 Pro being subjected to drop testing began appearing on the social network formerly known as Twitter. The clips depicted what looks like a silver-gray iPhone 18 Pro model with the expected three-camera rear array, showing the lenses protruding more from the camera plateau than on the current iPhone 17 Pro. The video also showed the Apple logo on the back of the device with a reflective finish.

These were initially shared by an account using the @EvLeaks handle, and reposted by Ice Universe. However, the posts have since been taken down by X, due to a violation of the social platform’s rules, which also suspended the @EvLeaks account. As of this writing, the Ice Universe account remains live.

Evan Blass, perhaps the person most associated with the EvLeaks handle, says he has “nothing to do with the new @EvLeaks account nor the purported iPhone leak posted there.”

Blass added: “Looks like Apple may have done what Samsung never could,” apparently referring to the scores of Samsung leaks that Blass himself was able to make public with no issues over the years.

While Apple has yet to comment on the videos and their removal, the crackdown appears to be spreading quickly, leaving dozens of removed videos and articles in its wake.

In China, Ice Universe claimed on Weibo that Apple had “already banned the leaked data on Twitter.”

Earlier this morning, 9to5Mac pulled a report covering the leaked drop-test videos. The publication did not clarify whether the posts were pulled at the request of Apple or Tata, or if the videos themselves were simply determined to be fake.

Apple is reportedly investigating the incident and is working with Tata to put improved security measures in place.

The Tata Leak

For those of you who haven’t heard about the leak of sensitive Apple documents, let’s recap.

Last week, a ransomware group that calls itself World Leaks claimed to have stolen over 200,000 files, which totaled more than 630 GB of data, from India’s Tata Electronics. While the Apple assembly partner didn’t provide details of the breach, it confirmed that it had “identified a cybersecurity incident,” while declining to say exactly what or how much data was taken or which of its customers were affected by the breach. However, Reuters reported that its sources said that the electronics manufacturer had indeed received a ransom demand.

Reuters also reported that Apple is “concerned” about the confidential files that were stolen from Tata Electronics and circulated on the dark web. The leaked files included Apple-watermarked documents, component details, supplier information, codenames, and images of iPhone 18 Pro models during drop testing. 

Tata Electronics is a major part of Apple’s plans to move production of its popular devices out of China. The firm is India’s largest Apple supplier by headcount. However, it still trails the other major Apple assembly partner, Foxconn, when it comes to raw output.

In addition to Apple, Tata also has supply and assembly deals in place with several other companies, including Intel, Qualcomm, Tesla, and others, meaning the purloined data went far beyond Apple schematics.