NEW DEHLI: India’s cybersecurity agency is currently investigating complaints of mobile phone hacking involving senior opposition politicians who have reported receiving warning messages from Apple, according to Information Technology Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw. Vaishnaw was quoted in the Indian Express newspaper, stating that CERT-In, the computer emergency response team based in New Delhi, has initiated the investigation. He also mentioned that “Apple has confirmed receiving the notice for investigation.”
Political aides to Vaishnaw and two officials from the federal home ministry informed Reuters that all the cybersecurity concerns raised by the politicians are under thorough scrutiny. As of now, there has been no immediate response from Apple regarding the ongoing investigation.
This week, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of attempting to hack into the mobile phones of opposition politicians. Some lawmakers shared screenshots on social media of a notification from the iPhone manufacturer, which stated: “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.”
A senior minister from Modi’s government also claimed to have received a similar notification on his phone. Apple clarified that it did not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker and noted that “it’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected.”
In 2021, India faced allegations that the government had used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to conduct surveillance on numerous journalists, activists, and politicians, including Gandhi. The government has refrained from responding to inquiries about whether India or any of its state agencies had purchased Pegasus spyware for surveillance.
