Apple meets watchdog over warning notification matter: Govt official

An Apple cyber security team has met watchdog CERT-In to discuss the issue of warning notifications sent to some opposition leaders, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Last month, several opposition leaders claimed they received an alert from Apple warning them of "state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise" their iPhones and alleged hacking by the government.

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) Rajeev Chandrasekhar had said that Apple has to reply to the notice which needs to be done by their global cyber security team.

The Apple team was scheduled to meet Indian cyber security watchdog CERT-In by the end of November.

"Apple team met CERT-In. Now CERT-In has to submit its report based on its findings," the official said.

He said there is no deadline for the submission of the report and CERT-In will submit the report after their investigation.

The Members of Parliament (MPs) who received the warning notification on their iPhones include Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, K C Venugopal, Supriya Shrinate, T S Singhdeo and Bhupinder S Hooda; Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Aam Aadmi Party's Raghav Chadha, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and some aides of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also received such alerts.