A day after several Opposition leaders claimed that they received alert messages from Apple Inc., warning them of “state-sponsored attackers”, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) IT Cell chief Amit Malviya on Wednesday alleged that the matter was “linked” to American billionaire George Soros. The BJP IT Cell chief replied to a thread on the social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), which allegedly busted the link between Soros and “Access Now”, mentioned as a “digital security helpline” by the Apple notification received by Opposition leaders.
Taking to social media, Malviya said, “Part 2 of the thread details out the network George Soros funded ‘Access Now’ has built in India. Notification received (from Apple) by the usual suspects in Opposition ranks also refers to Access Now. Only if you believe in fairy tales, would you think it is all a coincidence.”
Earlier on Tuesday, several Opposition leaders across party lines, including Shashi Tharoor, Raghav Chadha, Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Asaduddin Owaisi, among others alleged that their Apple devices had been the victim of the alleged hacking. The leaders shared the purported screenshots of the warning received on their Apple devices. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra—who is facing allegations regarding a cash-for-query scam, and has been summoned by the Lok Sabha Ethics Panel on the same—also received the warning message from Apple.
Meanwhile, Apple Inc. on Tuesday, officially announced that it does not attribute the threat notifications to specific state-sponsored attackers. “State-sponsored attackers are very well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time. Detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete. It’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected,” the company said in its statement. The tech giant further said that they are unable to provide information about what causes them to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future.
Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday also said the government had asked Apple to join the investigation with “accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks”. “The Government of Bharat takes its role of protecting the privacy and security of all citizens very seriously and will investigate to get to the bottom of these notifications. In light of such information and widespread speculation, we have also asked Apple to join the investigation with real, accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks,” Vaishnaw posted on his social media platforms.
