Background process triggering unsafe webpage notifications while I am asleep

iPhone 13, IOS 17.0.3. I am getting a notification every night while I am asleep warning that the same website is unsafe. It is obviously being triggered by a background process but I can’t find any information as to what is causing it.

I have cleared all browser history and cache. I have run a scan on the phone using Intego on my Mac (obviously not a full device scan because iPhone) which came up clean. I’m running out of ideas, I just want to be sure that my device is clean.

The site in question is relying on a NAT service but that is all the information I can put together.

Norton has blocked access to that site, so no communication is leaving your device to that location. So although that message is annoying, it does not appear to be something dangerous. 

Your disabling background app refresh is a good start. If it does stop these messages, then you could try turning on the background app refresh for 5 apps at a time and see if the messages start again. If not, add another 5 apps, etc until you see the messages again. Then you will know it is one of those 5 apps and you can start disabling the background refresh until you find the one that is causing the message.

 

As I’m aware I don’t think that there will be an app that can do that.

Will Norton be completely blocking the communication or just advising me not to do it? On a computer it would be an easy job of setting up a deny rule but I’m a little lost when it comes to the no-access philosophy of iOS.

I have disabled background app refresh for everything other than the Norton apps, so if I still receive the notification tonight it means that it is either Norton itself or something undesirable on my phone in which case I will go for a wipe and fresh start.

The more puzzling part is that the only matching variable between when I’m receiving the notifications is that I’m not actively using the phone. The first three times were at 11pm, 2am and 4am at home on WiFi, but last night it occurred at 8pm on mobile internet while I was on the way out to dinner

Looking at your list of apps on the device, there could be any number of them that might try to phone home in the middle of the night.

The good news is that Norton is blocking that access. 

I'll try to find an app that can monitor what app on your device is trying to access the internet. I'll post back later.

 

 

I installed Norton at the same time as updating to iOS 17 around a week ago, and updated to 17.0.3 after the second time I had the notification which was Thursday night.

None of the apps on my phone jump out at me as an obvious culprit, I will attach screenshots of what is on the phone. The only things installed recently are the Norton apps, MySky and the Xbox game pass app. I have the Norton Safeweb vpn connected 24/7 and the Secure vpn setup to connect when Norton sees an unsecured/compromised network.

That looks like a tracker link. What apps do you have on your phone that might call home at night for updates? 

Did this just start after updating to iOS 17.0.3?