India Opposition Accuses Government of Phone Hacking

• Rahul Gandhi accuses Modi’s government of phone hacking
• Apple sends cautionary messages to Indian opposition politicians
• Politicians receive Apple notifications about state-sponsored attackers

On Tuesday, Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi made accusations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, alleging an attempt to hack the mobile phones of senior opposition politicians.

These claims arose after the politicians reported receiving cautionary messages from Apple.

Some of the lawmakers shared screenshots on social media of a notification quoting the iPhone manufacturer as saying: “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID”.

“Hack us all you want,” Gandhi told a news conference in New Delhi, in reference to Modi. “But we (opposition) will not stop questioning you.”

Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expressed concern at the lawmakers’ statements and said the government had asked Apple to join its investigation into the matter.

The company said it did not attribute the threat notifications to “any specific state-sponsored attacker”.

State-sponsored attacks were evolving over time. Detecting them “relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete,” it said. “It’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected,”

Jairam Ramesh, serving as the spokesperson for Gandhi’s Congress party, described Apple’s explanation as a “lengthy response that does not actually deny a security breach.”

In 2021, India was shaken by revelations that the government had employed the Israeli-manufactured Pegasus spyware to monitor numerous journalists, activists, and politicians, including Rahul Gandhi.

The government has refrained from responding to inquiries regarding whether India or any of its state agencies procured the Pegasus spyware for surveillance purposes.

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