Still waiting for Apple’s reply on device vulnerability: Centre

New Delhi: The government is still waiting for a clear reply from iPhone maker Apple on iPhone alert sent to opposition political leaders around five months back on alleged hacking of their devices by state-backed hackers.

In an interview, Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government has asked Apple two questions: whether their devices are safe, and if so the reason for the alert was sent to opposition members.

“In my humble opinion, this is not something that any proprietary platform will completely concede whether they have vulnerabilities in their platform. There's an instinct in any platform to deny that vulnerability exists,” he said. “We are asking a clear question, is your phone vulnerable? The answer to that is not totally unambiguous,” Chandrasekhar said. In October, several opposition leaders claimed they have received an alert from Apple warning them of state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their iPhones and alleged hacking by the government.

Among those who received the threat notification on their iPhones were Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, K C Venugopal, SupriyaShrinate, T S Singhdeo, and Bhupinder S Hooda. Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, and Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, AamAadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi and some aides of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also received the notification.