NEW DELHI,Oct 31: Several opposition leaders on Tuesday claimed they received an alert from Apple warning them of “state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their iPhones and alleged hacking by the government, a charge IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw rejected but assured a thorough probe.
Those who received such notifications included Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, K C Venugopal, Supriya Shrinate, T S Singhdeo and Bhupinder S Hooda; Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and some aides of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also received the notification.
Yechury and Chaturvedi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while Moitra shot off a missive to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, raising concerns over the issue and demanding action.
iPhone-maker Apple Inc reacted to the claims of Opposition leaders, saying it is possible that some threat notifications may be false alarms and some attacks may not be detected.
It, however, refused to say what triggered warnings received by opposition leaders.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday hit out at the government over several opposition leaders receiving threat notifications from Apple of “state-sponsored attackers” targeting their phones, alleging that snooping and probe agencies are deployed to distract public attention as soon as the Adani issue is raised.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters, he also displayed a copy of the text and e-mail warnings received by people in his office, several party and opposition leaders and said this is clearly a sign of the government’s panic.
At the presser, Gandhi accused the government of indulging in “distraction politics” on the Adani issue, which the opposition has accused of creating monopolies in various sectors in the country.
“We are not scared. You can do as much phone tapping as you want, I don’t care. If you want to take my phone, I will give it to you…,” Gandhi said.
While iPhone-maker Apple Inc said it does not attribute threat notifications, such as the ones received by some MPs belonging to Opposition parties, to any specific state-sponsored attackers and that it cannot provide information on what causes such warnings, the BJP rejected the allegations against the government as “baseless and false”.
Moitra said on X she is writing officially to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla requesting that he follows “Raj Dharma” to protect Opposition MPs and urged him to summon Home Ministry officials on the phones and emails being hacked.
In his letter to PM Modi, Yechury expressed apprehension that remote access to his mobile phone maybe used for “planting” information on his device which could be used to “incriminate” him.
Chaturvedi in her letter to PM sought prompt action into the matter.
IT Minister Vaishnaw rejected the opposition’s attack on the government, saying the “compulsive critics” were indulging in the politics of “distraction” as they could not tolerate the country’s progress under the PM’s leadership.
He, however, assured the government “will investigate to get to the bottom of these notifications”.
“In light of such information and widespread speculation, we have also asked Apple to join the investigation with real, accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks,” the minister said in a post on X.
Speaking to media in Bhopal, he said it will be a very “technical kind of investigation”, and will be taken up by Cert-In, the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents.
“This requires a technical domain. Therefore, a technically qualified agency like Cert-In, which has global collaboration with all the major experts of the world.”
“They (Cert-In) will be investigating and will be taking help from all other law enforcement agencies as and when required,” the minister said. (PTI)
