‘State-sponsored’ attacks on Oppn's iPhones: Apple

NT Correspondent

New Delhi: Apple has warned several Indian opposition leaders and journalists that their iPhones may have been targeted by “state-sponsored attackers”.

Opposition leaders from other parties who made similar statements on social media were Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha.

The political leaders, excluding Owaisi, belong to the INDIA Opposition bloc. All of them are critical of the Modi government.

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Piyush Goyal too received the alert, according to a NDTV report.

The general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury, who was one of the politicians who received the warning about a state-sponsored spyware attack, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to register his protest.

“This constitutes a gross violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India to all its citizens. A surveillance state is the antithesis of democracy,” he said.

“Your assumption to the office of the Prime Minister was under oath to uphold the Constitution of India. Instead, there is a gross destruction of democracy and democratic rights of citizens. This is unacceptable,” Yechury said, urging Modi to respond to the matter immediately.

Raising the issue at a press conference here, Rahul Gandhi attacked the Modi government. "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..," he said.

"The hierarchy in the country is: No. 1 – Adani, No. 2 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and No. 3 Amit Shah... Narendra Modi's soul is with Adani. The truth is that power is in the hands of someone else. As soon as Adani is touched, intelligence agencies snooping are deployed," he said.

“ Get a life,” Moitra posted on X, slamming the Indian prime minister’s and home minister’s office for “trying to hack into my phone and email”.

Observer Research Foundation president Samir Saran and the Deccan Chronicle resident editor Sriram Karri also said that they had received warnings from Apple.

The Wire reported its founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan also received such an alert. Journalists Ravi Nair and Revathi said that they had been targeted.

“Phone was getting drained of battery majorly the last few days and was acting weird,” Revathi wrote in a media post.

“Not the first time! But again makes you feel unsafe and even angry.” IT Minister Vaishnaw rejected the opposition's attack 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.

What did the messages say?

The messages warned the recipients that “if your device is compromised by a state-sponsored attacker, they may be able to remotely access your sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone”.

The notification added, “While it’s possible this is a false alarm, please take this warning seriously.”

On its website, Apple says: “Unlike traditional cybercriminals, state-sponsored attackers apply exceptional resources to target a very small number of specific individuals and their devices, which makes these attacks much harder to detect and prevent. State-sponsored attacks are highly complex, cost millions of dollars to develop and often have a short shelf life."