India investigates allegations of iPhone hacking made by opposition politicians, a government minister says
India's cyber security agency is currently looking into complaints of mobile phone hacking involving senior opposition politicians who reported receiving warning messages from Apple.
According to a report from Reuters, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, as he quoted it in the Indian Express newspaper, the investigation has been initiated by CERT-In, the computer emergency response team located in New Delhi. He also mentioned that "Apple confirmed it has received the notice for investigation."
All the concerns related to cybersecurity raised by politicians are currently under scrutiny by government officials.
As of now, there has been no immediate response from Apple regarding the investigation.
Earlier this week, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi accused the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attempting to hack the mobile phones of opposition politicians. This accusation came after some lawmakers shared screenshots on social media displaying notifications from Apple, which stated, "Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID."
A senior minister from the Modi government also reported receiving a similar notification on his phone.
Apple clarified that it did not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker. They added that it's possible that some of these notifications might be false alarms or that certain attacks might go undetected.
In 2021, India was embroiled in controversy when reports emerged that the government had employed Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to surveil numerous journalists, activists, and politicians, including Rahul Gandhi. However, the government refrained from responding to inquiries regarding the purchase of Pegasus spyware for surveillance by India or its state agencies.
