Report states that the government urged Apple to take action regarding the iPhone security alert in October.
A new report reveals that officials have taken action against Apple after several notable personalities, including members of the Opposition party alliance INDIA and journalists, received notifications on their iPhones warning them of state-sponsored attackers attempting to compromise their devices. The leaders posted screenshots of the alerts on their X accounts and sought clarification from the government, prompting the NDA government to inquire with Apple for more information. Find out more about the situation.
Government action against Apple
According to a Washington Post report, authorities are demanding the Cupertino-based tech giant soften the political impact of the alerts. The government also reportedly summoned Apple’s security experts to a meeting and demanded that they provide users with a proxy explanation of the alerts.
A visiting Apple official stuck to the company’s warnings. But the Indian government’s intense drive to discredit Apple and strengthen Apple disturbed executives at the company’s headquarters,” the report said.
Warning – Who got it?
Leaders who have been alerted include Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, CPI(M) Sitaram Yechury, Trinamool Congress Party’s Mahua Moitra. Raghav Chadha and Asaduddin Owaisi of All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen. Interestingly, the same alert was also sent to other high-profile authorities in 150 other countries on the same day.
In the midst of the noise, Apple issued a statement. It said that “Apple does not attribute the threat notification to any state-sponsored attacker.” It also said the attackers were well-funded and sophisticated, and that their attacks evolved over time.
“Detection of such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals, which are often incomplete and incomplete. It is possible that some of Apple’s threat notifications may be false alarms or some attacks may not be detected,” it added.
