NEW DELHI: The representatives of iPhone maker Apple are likely to meet the officials of CERT-In, a cybersecurity investigation unit under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, in the first week of December 2023.
Apple’s cyber security executives will meet the investigation agency to discuss the warning messages of hacking iPhone sent to the Indian parliamentarians. “The group was supposed to join the investigation by the end of this month. Now, they may arrive in India in the first week of December 2023,” said an official.
On November 24, 2023, the parliamentarians including Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, and Congress’ Shashi Tharoor shared screenshots of warning messages reading a hacking attempt made by state-sponsored attackers on their social media platforms.
These individuals have alleged that the government is conducting surveillance on them. However, the government warded off their charges, and said it asked the American tech giant to participate in the investigation to determine the reason behind this message. Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the government has asked Apple to join the investigation with real, accurate information on the alleged state sponsored attacks.
Meanwhile, Apple clarified that it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker. The company also declined to divulge information about the triggers for issuing these notifications, citing concerns that such details could aid state-sponsored attackers in adapting their tactics to avoid detection in the future.