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

New Delhi : The government will investigate claims by some Opposition MPs that they received warning messages from Apple Inc of possible hacking attempts on their iPhones. After opposition MPs, some of them vocal critics of the government, took to X (formerly Twitter) to post warning messages they received and Apple confirmed having sent them, Telecom and 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 notifications".

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government wants Apple to clarify if its devices are secure and why 'threat notifications' were sent to people in over 150 countries, given the company's repeated claims about its products being designed for privacy. In a series of posts on X, Vaishnaw said the information by Apple of its notification about 'state-sponsored attacks' "seems vague and non-specific in nature". "Apple states these notifications may be based on information, which is 'incomplete or imperfect'. It also states that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms or some attacks are not detected," he said.

"Apple has also claimed that Apple IDs are securely encrypted on devices, making it extremely difficult to access or identify them without the user's explicit permission. This encryption safeguards the user's Apple ID and ensures that it remains private and protected." He said Apple has been asked to "join the investigation with real, accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks". "It will be a very technical kind of investigation. 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 in briefing in Bhopal. Chandrasekhar said the government is committed and duty-bound to protect the privacy of citizens and takes this responsibility very seriously. "Government will investigate these threat notifications and also Apple's claims of being secure and privacy compliant devices," he said, adding Apple is expected to clarify "if its devices are secure, (and) why these 'threat notifications' are sent to people in over 150 countries".

Opposition MPs from Mahua Moitra of TMC to Shashi Tharoor of Congress took to X to post warning messages they received on their iPhones about the possible hacking attempt. Reached for comments, Apple said it does not attribute threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attackers and that it cannot provide information on what causes such warnings. "Apple does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker," Apple said in a statement. State-sponsored attackers, it said, are "very well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time".

"Detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete. It is possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected," it said. It, however, did not say what triggered warnings received by MPs like Mahua Moitra of TMC. "We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future," Apple said. Meanwhile, sources privy to the development said Apple has sent threat notifications to individuals whose accounts are in nearly 150 countries.