Opposition MPs including TMC's Mahua Moitra, Shiv Sena (UBT's) Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress' Pawan Khera and Shashi Tharoor, AAP's Raghav Chadha, CPIM's Sitaram Yechury said that they have received a notification from Apple stating that their devices were being targeted by state-sponsored attackers.
Other politicians who have received such notifications include Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, NCP's Supriya Shrinate, AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi, Congress' Revanth Reddy, BRS' KT Rama Rao and three officials in Rahul Gandhi’s office.
Apart from politicians, Observer Researcher Foundation (ORF) president Samir Saran and journalists Siddharth Vardarajan and Sriram Karri too said that they had received similar notifications from Apple.
The email by Apple, as shared by Tharoor on a post on X (formerly Twitter) read, "Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID (email id). These attackers are likely targeting you individually because of who you are or what you do.
"If your device is compromised by a state-sponsored attacker, they may be able to remotely access your sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone. While it's possible that this is a false alarm, please take this warning seriously," the email by Apple to Tharoor read.
Tharoor responded to this saying ," Received from an Apple ID, threat-notifications@apple.com, which I have verified. Authenticity confirmed. Glad to keep underemployed officials busy at the expenses of taxpayers like me! Nothing more important to do?"
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi who also shared screenshots of the notification from Apple asked if Ministry of Home Affairs will investigate this issue.
"Received text & email from Apple warning me Govt trying to hack into my phone & email," TMC's Moitra said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Meanwhile, ORF's Samir Saran said that he was notified by Apple last night, and that he has implemented remedial measures as recommended by Apple and that he has reached out to experts.
In a statement, Apple said, “Apple does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state sponsored attacker. State-sponsored attackers are very well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time. Detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete."
"It’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected. We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behavior to evade detection in the future,” the statement added.
Apar Gupta, founding director of digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation said, "With imminent state assembly elections and the 2024 general elections not far off, the timing of these threat notifications is alarming. Public cynicism or judicial stupor should not preclude us from demanding an independent, transparent technical analysis and clear disclosures from the Government of India regarding its spyware purchases and deployments. This issue strikes at the heart of Indian democracy."
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