With more than two months to go before Apple’s annual iPhone launch, a video claiming to show the iPhone 18 Pro undergoing a drop test spread rapidly across X and other social media platforms this week. The footage showed what appeared to be an iPhone 18 Pro being tested in a laboratory setting. Leaker Ice Universe was so taken by it that they called it “easily the biggest leak in Apple’s history.”
But the story behind the video is murkier than the footage itself. According to Macworld, the video is believed to have originated from a ransomware attack on one of Apple’s manufacturers, first reported by Reuters. That attack reportedly included iPhone 18 Pro drop test files among the stolen data, which lines up closely with what appeared online.
The video has since been scrubbed from multiple platforms, and there are growing signs that Apple may be involved in that cleanup effort.
The account that originally posted the video added another layer of confusion. It was posted under @evleaks, the handle belonging to Evan Blass, one of the most credible and well-known leakers in the tech world. His track record gave the video instant legitimacy in the eyes of many observers. The problem is that Blass shut down the @evleaks account back in May due to health concerns and has not posted anything since.
After the video surfaced under his old handle, Blass posted on his personal account to make clear he has no connection to the leak and no involvement with the @evleaks account. X has since suspended the account entirely, and Ice Universe quietly deleted their own post sharing the video.
How did someone end up with access to @evleaks in the first place? X allows Premium+ subscribers to claim inactive handles through what it calls “rare handle drops,” which means the account was likely acquired by someone else after Blass stepped away. That person, whoever they are, used the borrowed credibility of a trusted name to push the video out to a wide audience.
The situation points to a few things worth keeping in mind:
- A real cyberattack on an Apple supplier did happen, and iPhone 18 Pro materials were part of the stolen files
- The @evleaks account was not controlled by Evan Blass when the video was posted
- X suspended the account after the video went up, and the cleanup effort has been swift
- Apple’s possible involvement in removing the content suggests the footage may have been genuine
Blass himself hinted at that last point with a dry observation: “Looks like Apple may have done what Samsung never could…” when the account was suspended. It is not a confirmation, but it is not nothing either.
Apple is famously protective of its unreleased products, and leaks of this nature from the supply chain are not common. When they do happen, they tend to come in the form of case molds or component photos, not video footage from what looks like an internal testing environment. If the video is real, it represents a meaningful security failure, regardless of how the footage eventually got out.
The broader context matters here too. Supply chain leaks have become more frequent as Apple’s manufacturing network spans dozens of suppliers across Asia. Ransomware attacks targeting those suppliers have increased in recent years, and this incident is a reminder that even Apple’s tightly controlled product development process is only as secure as the weakest link in that chain.
For now, the authenticity of the video remains unconfirmed. What is confirmed is that Apple’s manufacturing partners were attacked, sensitive files were stolen, and someone used a hijacked account to put that footage in front of millions of people. Whether the iPhone 18 Pro shown in the video is the real thing, readers will likely find out when Apple takes the stage this fall.