Tech giant Apple sent out ‘hack alert’ notifications to a few opposition leaders today, warning them that their iPhones may be targeted by state-sponsored attackers. This has raised concerns about the security of Apple devices and the government’s surveillance powers.

Apple, however, quickly released a statement over this issue, highlighting the possibility of “false alarm”. The government, in response, has assured a deeper probe into the matter, citing “protection of privacy of our citizens”.

Opposition leaders receive “hack alert”

Opposition leaders, including Shiv Sena (UBT) Priyanka Chaturvedi, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress’ Pawan Khera and Shashi Tharoor, AAP’s Raghav Chadha, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav today said that they have received the notification from Apple.

The alert messages received by the leaders read, “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,” says another message. Many of the leaders shared the screenshot of the alert message on X.

Several leaders including Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Shashi Tharoor, Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, responded to these messages, slamming the centre.

Clarification from Apple

Amid this outrage, Apple has clarified that “it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker”. It also said that it’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms.

The iPhone maker released a statement, “State-sponsored attackers are very well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time.”

“We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future,” the statement read.

It further said that Apple has sent “threat notifications” to individuals whose accounts are in nearly 150 countries. The response came hours after several leaders received the notification from Apple.

Will get to the bottom of these: IT minister

Union minister for electronics and information technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw came down heavily on the US phone maker Apple in a series of posts on X.

He said that Apple has 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,” he said. 

Meanwhile, union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the centre expects Apple to come clear on “threat warnings” sent to people in over 150 countries.

The MoS for Electronics said, “The Government will investigate these threat notifications and also Apple’s claims of being secure and privacy compliant devices.”

(Source: IANS)

-Edited for style

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