Apple to send experts to join hacking threat notification probe in India

Apple is sending a team of experts to delve deep into the issue of some Indian politicians receiving threat notifications last month, warning them of state-sponsored hackers targeting their devices. The Apple team consists of technical and cybersecurity experts and will visit India soon to further look into the issue, reliable sources told IANS on Friday. The threat notification probe is currently being conducted by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). Also Read: Government denies report that claims India targeted Apple over phone hacking notifications

In October, Opposition MPs, including Shiv Sena’s (UBT) Priyanka Chaturvedi, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress’ Pawan Khera and Shashi Tharoor, AAP’s Raghav Chadha, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said they received a notification from Apple stating that their devices were being targeted by state-sponsored attackers. Right after the politicians highlighted the notification they received on their iPhone devices, the union minister for electronics and information technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw took cognisance of the matter and issued a statement. Also Read: Apple Tax: What it is and how can developers avoid paying it

“The Government of Bharat 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. 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,” Vaishnaw said in a string of posts on X (formerly Twitter).

Apple had sent “threat notifications” to individuals whose accounts are in nearly 150 countries. The company had clarified that “it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker”. Apple that it’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms.

“State-sponsored attackers 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’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected,” the tech giant had said in a statement.

Apple had said it was “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.”

— Written with inputs from IANS