Government asks Apple to join probe after Opposition MPs claim of receiving hacking attempt warning from iPhone maker

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, October 31

Hours after several opposition MPs claimed to have received messages from Apple warning them of "state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise" their iPhones, the government on Tuesday asked the US-headquartered company to join the investigation.

Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw put out a post on X saying, “In light of such information and widespread speculation, we have asked Apple to join the investigation with real, accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks.”

The minister said the government was concerned at the statements it had seen in the media from some MPs as well as others about a notification received by them from Apple. The notification received by them, as per media reports, mentions ‘state-sponsored attacks’ on their devices.

“The Government of Bharat takes its role of protecting the privacy and security of all citizens very seriously and will investigate to get to the bottom of these notifications,” Vaishnaw said.

Information by Apple on this issue seems vague and non-specific in nature. “Apple states these notifications maybe based on information which is “incomplete or imperfect”. It also states that some Apple threat notifications maybe false alarms or some attacks are not detected,” Vaishnaw said.

iPhone-maker Apple Inc on Tuesday said it does not attribute threat notifications, such as the ones received by some MPs belonging to Opposition parties, to any specific state-sponsored attackers and that it cannot provide information on what causes such warnings.

At least four opposition leaders on Tuesday shared screenshots on X about the message they got from Apple. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress's Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor and his party's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera shared the screenshots on X.

Meanwhile, Vaishnaw said Apple had also claimed that Apple IDs are securely encrypted on devices, making it extremely difficult to access or identify them without the user's explicit permission. This encryption safeguards the user's Apple ID and ensures that it remains private and protected.

After some of the most vocal critics of the government said they received warnings that attempts had been made by state-sponsored attackers to steal information from their iPhones, Apple in a statement said it is possible that some threat notifications might be false alarms and some attacks might not be detected.

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