Apple alerts Indian Opposition leaders, journalists of ‘State-Sponsored’ hacking attempts

The warning reads, “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID ….”

Apple alerts Opposition leaders, journalists: In a startling development, multiple leaders from India's opposition parties and at least three journalists have received an alarming notification from Apple.

The notification reads, “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID ….”

Recipients of Apple’s Alert

Those who have received this concerning message include:

1. Mahua Moitra (Trinamool Congress MP)
2. Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena UBT MP)
3. Raghav Chadha (AAP MP)
4. Shashi Tharoor (Congress MP)
5. Asaduddin Owaisi (AIMIM MP)
6. Sitaram Yechury (CPI(M) General Secretary and former MP)
7. Pawan Khera (Congress spokesperson)
8. Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party president)
9. Siddharth Varadarajan (Founding Editor, The Wire)
10. Sriram Karri (Resident Editor, Deccan Chronicle)
11. Samir Saran (President, Observer Research Foundation)
12. Revathi (Independent journalist)
13. K.C. Venugopal (Congress MP)
14. Supriya Sule (Congress MP)
15. Several individuals working in Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s office

The alarming email, titled "ALERT: State-sponsored attackers may be targeting your iPhone," continues, "These attackers are likely targeting you individually because of who you are or what you do. If your device is compromised by a state-sponsored attacker, they may be able to remotely access your sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone."

The message emphatically urges recipients to take this warning seriously, even though it might be a false alarm.

Unusual Timing and India-Specific Cluster

The timing and the fact that at least five individuals in India simultaneously received this alert at 11:45 pm on October 30, 2023, indicate that these targeted recipients form an India-specific cluster.

Prateek Waghre, policy director of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), expressed the seriousness of these threat notifications and called for a thorough investigation into their source and the extent of the malware attack. He also raised concerns about India's history of individuals, especially journalists, parliamentarians, and constitutional functionaries, being targeted by spyware like Pegasus in the past.

Apar Gupta, the founding director of IFF, supported this view, providing three key reasons why these alerts cannot be dismissed as "false alarms". These reasons include the historical use of Pegasus spyware by NSO Group in India, confirmation of Apple's threat notifications to Russian journalists, and India's recent efforts to acquire new spyware contracts.

This unprecedented situation calls for a careful and comprehensive investigation to safeguard individuals' privacy and security, especially in light of India's history with spyware attacks.

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