CERT-In is in the process of getting information from Apple about the alerts and our agencies will act on the information provided, said MoS Jitin Prasada
Prasada was responding to a question from AAP MP Raghav Chadha about whether government had taken cognisance of the “attacks”
In October last year, multiple Indian opposition leaders alleged that they had these alerts on their iPhones, sparking a major political controversy
The government has informed the Parliament that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is in touch with tech giant Apple over the controversial threat notifications sent to various opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) and journalists.
“CERT-In is in touch with Apple and is in the process of getting information from the company about the alerts. Our agencies will act on the information provided,” said Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada in Rajya Sabha on Friday (July 26).
He was responding to a question from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha, who was one of the recipients of the alleged threat notification.
“I along with several members of this House, particularly who sit in the opposition benches, are victims of something called state-sponsored spyware attack. Whereby our mobile phones notified us that a state-sponsored cyber attack took place which was attempting to infiltrate our mobile phone devices,” Chadha said while raising the issue in the upper house.
He asked if the government had taken cognisance of the “attacks”, adding that whether authorities have taken any action in this regard.
“Now members of just not this House including several journalists and eminent people in public life are also victims. Therefore, I ask whether the government has taken cognizance of such attacks. Is there a list of the people who were attacked by such spyware attacks? And thirdly, what action has been taken?” added Chadha.
At the heart of the matter are the threat notifications sent by Apple to alert users who may have become targets of state-sponsored actors.
In October last year, multiple Indian opposition leaders, including Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera and Sitaram Yechury alleged that they had these alerts on their iPhones, sparking political controversy and accusations of government surveillance.
In its message, Apple had said that malicious attackers could remotely access sensitive data, communications as well as camera and microphone of the compromised iPhones. However, the message also noted that it is ‘possible’ that this could be a ‘false alarm’ but advised recipients to take the warning seriously.
The aftermath saw the IT Ministry sending a notice to tech giant Apple concerning the controversial threat notifications received. Afterwards, it was reported that Apple’s cybersecurity executives from the US were planning to meet officials of CERT-In in connection with these alleged threat notifications.
In March this year, the then MoS for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the Centre had received ambiguous responses from Apple in connection with the questions related to the notifications.
What followed was the big tech major dropping the word “state-sponsored” from its threat notification policy. In April this year, it warned its users in India and 91 other countries of a “mercenary spyware attack” replacing the term “state-sponsored”.
