Indian Government Probes Opposition Leaders’ Cyber Threat Claims

In late 2023, several opposition leaders reported receiving warnings from Apple about potential state-sponsored cyber attacks targeting their phones. The leaders included Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, and Pawan Khera from Congress’ media team.

On Friday, Jitin Prasad, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, addressed these claims in the Rajya Sabha. Responding to a question from Raghav Chadha about state-sponsored hacking, Prasad clarified that the government does not believe in the existence of state-sponsored hacking as claimed by the opposition leaders.

Prasad stated that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is working with Apple to understand the source of the alerts that were sent to the opposition leaders. He mentioned, “We are in touch with Apple to get more information about the source of their alerts. Once we have this information, our agencies will take appropriate action.”

Chadha had earlier questioned the government about the steps taken in response to these alleged cyber attacks and asked for a list of those affected. Prasad assured that efforts are ongoing to investigate the matter thoroughly.