Govt sends notice to Apple about 'state-sponsored attacks' alert on iPhones

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw rejected the allegations of hacking by the government and said that they would conduct a thorough probe

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has sent notice to tech giant Apple regarding the recent threat-alert notification that went to several politicians and journalists about “state-sponsored attackers” trying to take control of their devices.

While responding to questions around the issue, IT Secretary S Krishnan on Thursday said notice had been sent to Apple and the government was hoping the tech firm would cooperate with the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (Cert-in), which is investigating the matter.

Cert-in is the national nodal agency for responding to computer-security incidents as and when they occur.

The controversy around the issue started on October 31, when several members of Parliament (MPs), journalists, and academicians alleged hacking attempts by the government. They shared screenshots of the threat alert they received on their iPhones. It read “state-sponsored attackers may be targeting your iPhone”.

Those who received such notifications included Congress members such as party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, 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 Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. 

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw rejected the allegations of hacking by the government and said the government would conduct a thorough probe. In a post on X, he said: "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.”

Apple did not respond to email queries sent by Business Standard till the time of going to press.

According to the company’s support page, since the launch of the feature, the company has sent threat notifications to individuals whose accounts are in nearly 150 countries. However, Apple does not attribute those to any specific state-sponsored attacker. State-sponsored attackers are well funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time.

Apple said detecting such attacks relied on threat intelligence signals, often imperfect and incomplete.