India iPhone attack is troubling message to world: Shiv Sena MP

NEW DELHI | Updated: 01 November, 2023 1:27 pm IST
In her letter, she explained that it was the first instance in almost a "decade" of using Apple's products when she had received such a warning directly from Apple

NEW DELHI: Following claims of “state-sponsored” surveillance into her iPhone, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Member of Parliament, Priyanka Chaturvedi, sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, on Tuesday, to investigate these security alerts.

Chaturvedi implored the Centre to find out which “state-sponsored” entity had hacked into her phone. Her letter read, “I have every reason to take this matter seriously and urge you to investigate who, within the ‘state’, is engaged in attempting to access my phone and monitor my activities, which is a clear abuse of their authority.”

In her letter, she explained that it was the first instance in almost a “decade” of using Apple’s products when she had received such a warning directly from the company. She emphasised that she had never before encountered a message expressing apprehension about the “compromise of Apple ID.”

While speaking with news agencies, the former Congress leader attacked the central government for being “flustered” with the Opposition INDIA alliance that they had taken to doing “surveillance on Opposition leaders”.

 

“I’ve been an Apple user for the last 20 years, but never have I ever received a message warning about a state-sponsored attack. You can understand how flustered the central government that it is doing a surveillance on opposition leaders,” she said.

Following her claims, Apple issued a discretionary which suggested that the attacks were not specific to a particular “state” while some others may remain undetected. The statement read, “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.”

 

However, in response to the Minister of Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw’s decision to investigate the allegations, Chaturvedi emphasised the factors behind why solely the phones of the Opposition members received an alert.

These alerts had been received by a couple of members of the Opposition INDIA alliance such as TMC MP Mahua Moitra, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, Congress spokesperson Pavan Khera, AAP MP Raghav Chadha, and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief, Akhilesh Yadav.

 

Congress MP and former party president Rahul Gandhi had also claimed that he had received the same alert alongside party General Secretary KC Venugopal at a press conference.

Apple had also notified that these alerts had also been issued across the world, specifically, across 150 countries.

The leaders were warned that these “attackers” were likely targeting them individually because of “who you are or what you do”.

ALSO READ: iPhone breach: India’s CERT had alerted first in Jun, Apple advisory nothing new

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