This decision changes the very nature of your iPhone.
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Apple users continuing to make headlines for having to restart their iPhones (1,2), the reasons behind it are not very well understood. This is not just an alarming new attack that has caused chaos across iWorld. That’s a surprising number of iPhone users who don’t have security patches installed. Apple released it a full 6 weeks ago..
Let me be clear. Apple released a fix in mid-December and warned users to update. An iPhone that didn’t update during those six weeks wasn’t safe. It changes the nature of those devices and undermines the reason you buy an iPhone in the first place.
The actual number of users affected is unknown. Some analysts suggest that more than half of all iPhones are iPhones, but that’s an exaggeration. number teeth material. Probably hundreds of millions of devices Even when using more balanced market share metrics.
Apple in December warned The iPhone is being attacked by two exploits against the WebKit software. These began as “highly sophisticated attacks against specific targeted individuals.” However, security analysts were quick to warn that WebKit vulnerabilities were particularly dangerous and could be exposed to unsophisticated attackers.
apple’s decision Holding off the iOS 18 update for iPhones capable of running iOS 26 until December also means that hundreds of millions of devices likely won’t be restarted. And that won’t happen until users manually upgrade or eventually upgrade their devices to iOS 26.
Many security agencies advise users to restart their phones regularly (about once a week). Very few users do that. And in reality, if you don’t restart your iPhone regularly, you’re unlikely to get caught. That’s not to say it’s not good practice.
The combination of aggressive attacks and Apple’s decision to force users to upgrade to iOS 26 has resulted in a unique combination of factors that make restarting your iPhone even more important. And you’ll need to do this regularly until you finally upgrade to iOS 26.
It’s not just WebKit’s flaws that are important. Apple included more than 25 security fixes in iOS 26.2, any of which could impact your device. And now that they’re in the public domain, it’s unlikely that Apple will issue a warning if they are misused. A hotfix has been issued. The vulnerability has been resolved. Users are voluntarily choosing to ignore these fixes all together.
The best advice is to update now and don’t wait for iOS 26.3 to be released soon. This allows you to fix and restart at the same time. And your iPhone is safe.
These six weeks are long enough. Don’t leave it alone anymore.