NEW DELHI: Following claims of “state-sponsored” surveillance into her iPhone, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Member of Parliament, Priyanka Chaturvedi, sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, on Tuesday, to investigate these security alerts.
Chaturvedi implored the Centre to find out which “state-sponsored” entity had hacked into her phone. Her letter read, “I have every reason to take this matter seriously and urge you to investigate who, within the ‘state’, is engaged in attempting to access my phone and monitor my activities, which is a clear abuse of their authority.”
In her letter, she explained that it was the first instance in almost a “decade” of using Apple’s products when she had received such a warning directly from the company. She emphasised that she had never before encountered a message expressing apprehension about the “compromise of Apple ID.”
While speaking with news agencies, the former Congress leader attacked the central government for being “flustered” with the Opposition INDIA alliance that they had taken to doing “surveillance on Opposition leaders”.
FLASH: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology is considering summoning Apple representatives in response to recent ‘state-sponsored attacks’ on public figures in India.
The committee’s secretariat has voiced ‘deep concern’ and is treating the issue with… pic.twitter.com/nlbJOKIQpR
— The New Indian (@TheNewIndian_in) November 1, 2023
“I’ve been an Apple user for the last 20 years, but never have I ever received a message warning about a state-sponsored attack. You can understand how flustered the central government that it is doing a surveillance on opposition leaders,” she said.
Following her claims, Apple issued a discretionary which suggested that the attacks were not specific to a particular “state” while some others may remain undetected. The statement read, “It’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected. We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behavior to evade detection in the future.”
FLASH: Member of Parliament Priyanka Chaturvedi writes a letter to PM Modi and HM Amit Shah regarding Apple’s message on state sponsored attack#apple #toolkit pic.twitter.com/cWtv61xo62
— The New Indian (@TheNewIndian_in) October 31, 2023
However, in response to the Minister of Information and Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw’s decision to investigate the allegations, Chaturvedi emphasised the factors behind why solely the phones of the Opposition members received an alert.
These alerts had been received by a couple of members of the Opposition INDIA alliance such as TMC MP Mahua Moitra, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, Congress spokesperson Pavan Khera, AAP MP Raghav Chadha, and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief, Akhilesh Yadav.
SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav has become acerbic in his attacks with a tongue in cheek ripostes.
Joins chorus over Apple iPhone controversy.
From attacking chirkut netas to kaan na lagaye. pic.twitter.com/G3wOkuHDrI
— Rohan Dua (@rohanduaT02) October 31, 2023
Congress MP and former party president Rahul Gandhi had also claimed that he had received the same alert alongside party General Secretary KC Venugopal at a press conference.
Apple had also notified that these alerts had also been issued across the world, specifically, across 150 countries.
The leaders were warned that these “attackers” were likely targeting them individually because of “who you are or what you do”.