Govt orders probe after Opposition MPs' claims of receiving hacking attempt warnings from Apple

The government has ordered an investigation after Opposition MPs claimed that they received warnings of attempts being made by statesponsored attackers to steal information from their iPhones reported news agency PTIIn a post on X formerly Twitter IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government takes its role of protecting the privacy and security of all citizens very seriously and will investigate to get to the bottom of these notificationsIn light of such information and widespread speculation we have also asked Apple to join the investigation with real accurate information on the alleged statesponsored attacks the minister said in his postThe Government of Bharat takes its role of protecting the privacy and security of all citizens very seriously and will investigate to get to the bottom of these notifications 45mdash Ashwini Vaishnaw AshwiniVaishnaw October 31 2023The probe will be conducted by CertIn he saidIn a briefing in Bhopal Vaishnaw took on the Opposition saying compulsive critics were indulging in distraction politics as they could not tolerate the countrys progress under the Prime Ministers leadership reported PTIThe minister pointed out that Apple had issued such an advisory in 150 countriesIn his post Vaishnaw said Apple has also claimed that Apple IDs are securely encrypted on devices making it extremely difficult to access or identify them without the users explicit permissionThis encryption he said safeguards the users Apple ID and ensures that it remains private and protectedWe are concerned by the statements we have seen in media from some MPs as well as others about a notification received by them from Apple The notification received by them as per media reports mentions about statesponsored attacks on their devices However much of the information by Apple on this issue seems vague and nonspecific in nature the minister notedVaishnaw said that according to Apple these notifications may be based on information which is incomplete or imperfectThe minister further said that Apples statement has indicated that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms or some attacks are not detected reported PTISeveral Opposition leaders on Tuesday claimed they had received an alert from Apple warning them of statesponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise their iPhones and posted purported screenshots of the message on their X handlesShiv Sena UBT MP Priyanka Chaturvedi Trinamool Congress Mahua Moitra Aam Aadmi Partys Raghav Chadha Congress Shashi Tharoor and his partys media and publicity department head Pawan Khera shared the message from Apple on X CPIMgeneral secretary Sitaram Yechury also received a similar message sources in the party saidiPhone maker Apple Inc has said it does not attribute threat notifications such as the ones received by some MPs belonging to Opposition parties to any specific statesponsored attackers and that it cannot provide information on what causes such warningsAfter some of the most vocal critics of the government said they received warnings that attempts have been made by statesponsored attackers to steal information from their iPhones Apple in a statement stated it is possible that some threat notifications may be false alarms and some attacks may not be detectedMinister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a post on X said that after todays threat notifications being received by many people including MPs and those in geopolitics Apple should clarify whether its devices are secure and why these threat notifications are sent to people in over 150 countriesbecause Apple has repeatedly claimed their products are designed for privacy Our Government is committed and dutybound to protect the privacy of our citizens and we take this responsibility very seriously Chandrasekhar saidHe asserted that the government will investigate these threat notifications and also Apples claims of being secure and privacycompliant devicesWith inputs from PTI