India’s cybersecurity agency has launched an investigation into the Apple threat notification issue raised by opposition leaders.

New Delhi: The Central Government informed on Thursday that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has initiated a probe and also sent a notice to the American tech giant Apple. This action follows claims made by opposition leaders that they received emails from the company, alerting them about ‘state-sponsored’ attackers who were potentially attempting to compromise iPhones associated with their Apple IDs. According to IT Secretary S. Krishnan, CERT-In has commenced the investigation, and Apple is expected to cooperate in the probe.

“CERT-In, the national nodal agency for responding to computer security incidents, has started its probe… they (Apple) will cooperate in this probe,” IT Secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday.

What Does The I-T Minister Say?

Earlier, Ashwini Vaishnaw, union minister for electronics and information technology said that the Central Government will “get to the bottom” of the notifications sent by Apple over the iPhones to several leaders. He also sought the American Tech Giant’s support and cooperation in the probe.

“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 had said in a string of posts on X, (formerly Twitter).

Opposition Demanding Thorough Probe

Meanwhile, the threat notification has ignited a political furore with the grand old party demanding a thorough investigation into the matter by Lok Sabha’s Standing Committee on Information and Technology. Congress MP Karthi Chidambaram stated yesterday that he was writing to the chairperson of the panel, demanding a summons to Apple over its alerts to politicians warning against “state-sponsored attack”.

On the other hand, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey slammed Chidambaram stating that the panel was not being run by Rahul Gandhi or Shashi Tharoor but in accordance with Lok Sabha’s rules and regulations.

Opposition Leaders Received Threat Alerts

On Tuesday, almost 12 opposition leaders including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, AAP MP Raghav Chadha and TMC MP Mahua Moitra claimed that they received a threat notification on their iPhones, alerting them against “state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their devices.

Apple Released A Statement

As the issue escalated, Apple issued a statement stating that it was not attributing the attack to any “specific” state actor.

In the statement, Apple stated, “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 said in a statement.