Opposition claims tapping bid; Government denies, asks Apple to join probe

NEW DELHI/BHOPAL: Amid claims by opposition members of their iPhones being compromised, Apple on Tuesday stressed that alerts regarding state-sponsored attackers targeting the devices – some of which could be “false alarms” – had gone to several individuals in 150 countries and did not refer to any specific state actor. The government quickly stepped in to deny the charges of snooping and attacked the opposition for levelling “baseless charges”, with communications and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw saying the American giant had been asked to join a probe.
“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,” Vaishnaw posted on X, adding that Apple was asked to share “real, accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks”.

“Apple has issued the same advisory across 150 countries. The advisory might have been based on some hypothesis or estimations which are vague. There is no concrete reason behind that. It clearly appeared in the mail issued by Apple,” the minister said at a press conference in Bhopal.

The controversy erupted after politicians from the opposition camp – from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to his party colleagues Shashi Tharoor and K C Venugopal, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, TMC’s Mahua Moitra and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi – claimed to have received messages from Apple stating that their phones may be targeted by state-sponsored attackers, who were seeking to remotely target the devices to extract data, communications and even the microphone.
With the row escalating, the US giant moved in to defuse it by issuing a statement.

Watch Multiple opposition leaders allege ‘hacking’, share Apple warning received on their devices