Many Opposition leaders on Tuesday said they received an alert from Apple warning them of "state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise" their iPhones and alleged hacking by the government, a charge that Union Minister Piyush Goyal dismissed. He said in an interview that someone might have played a prank on them.
"I think perhaps someone played a prank on the Opposition leaders. They should lodge an official complaint and the Government will take appropriate action on that basis," Goyal told news agency ANI.
Furthermore, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, said that the Opposition is going through a weak phase, thus they see conspiracy in everything.
The reality is that Apple has itself cleared that this was some sort of malfunction and this message has reached people in 150 countries, he said. "I think the Opposition is going through a very weak phase these days, so they see conspiracy in everything. It seems that this was an error from Apple's end, hackers too are active across the world. This will be investigated. Apple too has been told to join in," he added.
He said the Opposition must look at their weaknesses first "instead of commenting on us".
Those who received such notifications included 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 the notification.
An Apple spokesperson, however, said, “Apple does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.”
The statement further said, “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 Apple notification shared by the MPs stated, "ALERT: State-sponsored attackers may be targeting your iPhone".
"Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple 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 this is a false alarm, please take this warning seriously," it stated.
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