In October of this year, some journalists and
opposition leaders
in India reported receiving a threat notification from
Apple
on their
iPhones
. After these individuals posted about the notification, the government launched an investigation. Apple executives were summoned to be questioned about the security of its devices, but instead of asking about security, the government insisted that Apple soften its message, reports the Washington Post.
The
Minister of Information Technology
,
Ashwini Vaishnaw
, said at the time that the Computer Emergency Response Team (
CERT-In
) had launched an investigation.
As a part of the investigation, the government has sent a notice to Apple requesting the company to send representatives for a meeting with government officials.
During the investigation, executives from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino were summoned to be questioned about the security of the company's devices. However, instead of focusing on device security, the government reportedly asked Apple to modify its public statements. According to three individuals familiar with the situation, the government asked that Apple soften its message.
The notification read, "State-sponsored attackers may be targeting your iPhone." Apple noted that “it’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms.
The threat notification alerts are sent to users "because of who they are or what they do." Individuals such as political leaders, journalists, and activists are the target crowd of these alerts to inform and assist users whom state-sponsored attackers may have targeted.
The government even brought in an Apple security expert from outside the country and asked them to find alternative explanations for the warnings given to users, according to the report.
Following reports of state-sponsored attacks on certain individuals, Apple released a public statement. In the statement, the company acknowledged that the “intelligence signals” are often imperfect and incomplete” Therefore, it is possible that some Apple threat notifications may be “false alarms.” Apple did not provide specific details in the notifications, as the company stated that it cannot disclose what triggers its threat notifications, and doing so may help state-sponsored attackers avoid getting detected in the future.
According to Apple, the company did not identify "any specific state-sponsored attacker" responsible for these threat notifications.
English (US) ·