Jitin Prasada, the Minister of State for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Friday addressed the Rajya Sabha on the allegations of state-sponsored hacking raised by various opposition leaders. Prasada assured that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is in touch with Apple to resolve the issue.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha, demanding the government’s response on the alleged state-sponsored spyware attacks and whether the government had taken sufficient measures to address them. He also requested a list of individuals affected by these attacks and sought clarity on the actions taken by the government.

“The opposition leaders are victims of state-sponsored spyware attacks, whereby our mobile phones notified us that a cyberattack that was aimed towards infiltrating our mobile phone devices has been carried out by the state,” Chadha said.

In response, Prasada firmly denied any state-sponsored hacking. He clarified that the government is actively working with Apple to understand the nature of the alerts issued to opposition leaders.

“We are in touch with Apple and also in the process of getting information about the source of their information that led them to arrive at a conclusion and send out alerts to opposition leaders. We are trying to acquire the data and its source. Once we get that, our agencies will act on it,” the MoS said.

The issue first came to light in late 2023 when several opposition leaders reported receiving warnings from Apple about potential state-sponsored cyberattacks. The individuals who received these warnings included Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, AAP’s Raghav Chadha, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, and Pawan Khera, who heads Congress’ media and publicity department.

Apple’s alerts were sent via SMS and email. The notification read, “State-sponsored attackers may be targeting your iPhone. Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID…”

The message further stated “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,” adding that there is a possibility that this is a false alarm.

In 2021, both Apple and Google had sent out warning notifications to users globally, including in India, cautioning them that their devices may have been remotely compromised due to an attack made by Pegasus, a spyware manufactured by Israeli company NSO.