Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi accused officials of hacking the cell phones of senior opposition politicians.
He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after his party received a warning message from Apple.
Some lawmakers shared screenshots on social media of notifications on their iPhones. The warning reads “Apple believes you are being targeted by a state-sponsored attacker who is attempting to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.”
“Hack us all you want,” Gandhi said at a news conference in New Delhi, referring to Modi.
“But we (the opposition) will not stop questioning you.”
Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expressed concern over the MP’s statement and said the government has asked Apple to look into the matter.
Quoting Reuters , the company said it did not attribute the threat notification to any specific state-sponsored attacker.
State-sponsored attacks have continued to grow over time. Many attacks are detected by relying on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete.
“It’s possible that some of Apple’s threat alerts were false alarms, or that some attacks went undetected,” Ashwini said.
Jairam Ramesh, a spokesman for Gandhi’s Congress Party, called Apple’s clarification a denial of the security breach.
In 2021, the Indian government has used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to spy on a number of journalists, activists and politicians, including Gandhi.
The government declined to answer questions about whether India or any state agency had purchased Pegasus spyware for surveillance.
Source : CNBC