India opposition accuses govt of trying to hack lawmakers’ iPhones
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of trying to hack into senior opposition politicians’ mobile phones, after they reported receiving warning messages from Apple (AAPL.O).
Some of the lawmakers shared screenshots on social media of a notification quoting the iPhone manufacturer as saying: “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID”.
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Members of Parliament from several opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress Party, the Indian National Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, posted screenshots of emails from Apple informing them that their iPhones had been the target of hacking attempts, they said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Several journalists critical of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, including reporters from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and The Wire — as well as the head of a government-linked think tank in New Delhi — also shared similar notices from Apple.
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— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 31, 2023
“Hack us all you want,” Gandhi told a news conference in New Delhi, in reference to Modi. “But we (opposition) will not stop questioning you.”
Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expressed concern at the lawmakers’ statements and said the government had asked Apple to join its investigation into the matter.
In light of such information and widespread speculation, we have also asked Apple to join the investigation with real, accurate information on the alleged state sponsored attacks. (5/5)
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) October 31, 2023
The company said it did not attribute the threat notifications to “any specific state-sponsored attacker”.
State-sponsored attacks were evolving over time. Detecting them “relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete,” it said. “It’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected,”
Jairam Ramesh, spokesperson for Gandhi’s Congress party, called Apple’s clarification a “long-winded non-denial” of a security breach.
In 2021, India was rocked by reports that the government had used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to snoop on scores of journalists, activists and politicians, including Gandhi.
The government has declined to reply to questions whether India or any of its state agencies had purchased Pegasus spyware for surveillance.
Source : Agencies