The News Freedom
Chandigarh, November 2
India’s cyber security agency, CERT-In – Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, has started an investigation after some Opposition politicians claimed they received alerts on their iPhones warning them allegedly about a “state-sponsored” hacking attempt, IT Secretary S Krishnan confirmed on Thursday. The minister has also confirmed that a notice has been sent to Apple, the Mint reported.
Responding to questions around the issue, IT Secretary S Krishnan on Thursday said notice had been sent to Apple and the government was hoping the tech firm would cooperate with the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (Cert-in), which is investigating the matter. Cert-in is the national nodal agency for responding to computer-security incidents as and when they occur, as per the Business Standard report.
“Apple confirmed it has received the notice for investigation” Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has told The Indian Express.
The Centre has ordered a probe into the warning received by Opposition lawmakers from Apple of a potential bid to hack their iPhones on October 31. Reacting to Apple alert, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has said that the government is concerned about this issue and it will get to the bottom of it. We have already ordered an investigation into it. Much of information by Apple on this issue seems vague and non-specific in nature.
Several political leaders, including Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, had claimed that they received an alert from Apple that stated that the State-sponsored attacker may be able to remotely access sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone of their iPhones, according to media reports.