Manoj Jha said, “This is a serious issue. The Minister’s statement on behalf of the government was a very feeble and weak argument. Why did only opposition members get this threat? This makes it a serious matter. The Supreme Court, too, should take cognizance.”
Earlier, Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said that It is undeniable that hundreds of Opposition leaders got an alert from Apple of a state-sponsored attempt to compromise their phones.
P Chidambaram posted on X, “It is undeniable that hundreds of Opposition leaders got an alert from Apple of a state-sponsored attempt to compromise their phones. Why only Opposition leaders? Who will be interested in compromising the phones of Opposition leaders? After the Pegasus mystery (not resolved until this date), the finger of suspicion points to a government agency. At the moment it is only a suspicion.”
Earlier on Tuesday, several other political leaders also reported receiving alerts from Apple.
Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and party’s General Secretary organisation KC Venugopal, Congress’ Pawan Khera, Shashi Tharoor, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra, and AAP MP Raghav Chaddha are among others who reported receiving alert messages from Apple.
The leaders of the opposition parties have alleged that the Government was behind the attempt to breach their devices. The leaders also shared screenshots of the warning received on their devices.
After a major controversy erupted between the ruling party and the opposition leaders over the alleged hacking of their phones, Apple officially announced that it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.
“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,” Apple said in a statement.
The tech giant further said that they are unable to provide information about what causes them to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future.
Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government has asked Apple to join the investigation with “accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks”.
“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 posted on X. (ANI)
