Apple Steps Up to Investigate Threat Notifications Sent to Indian Politicians

Apple, based in the United States, has dispatched a team of technical and cybersecurity specialists to investigate the recent incident in which Indian legislators received threat notifications on their devices. According to sources, the team would work with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to investigate the problem further.

Names of a Few Politicians who have been targeted are:-

Priyanka Chaturvedi, Mahua Moitra, Pawan Khera, Shashi Tharoor, Raghav Chadha, Sitaram Yechury, and Akhilesh Yadav, among others, reported receiving notifications from Apple in October that state-sponsored hackers had targeted their devices.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated a probe has been ordered and invited tech giant Apple to join the investigation with genuine, correct information on the "alleged state-sponsored attacks" after expressing "concerns" over the snooping claims made by opposition leaders.

Apple highlights difficulties in detecting such attacks

Apple stressed that these messages are not linked to any specific state-sponsored adversary and acknowledged the possibility of false alarms. The company highlighted the sophistication of state-sponsored attackers and the difficulties in detecting such attacks with poor threat intelligence signals.

"State-sponsored attackers are well-funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve," says the report. Detecting such attacks depends on threat intelligence signals, which could be more precise and adequate. Some Apple danger notifications may be false alarms, or some threats may not be detected. "We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications because doing so may assist state-sponsored attackers in adapting their behaviour to avoid detection," Apple stated.

Google and Apple remain concerned

Meanwhile, Google and Apple remain concerned about recent rules requiring them to allow customers to sideload programs on Android and iOS, respectively. But, as most of you know, Android has always permitted installing apps from rival app stores, which irritates Apple, as Tim Cook has often stated.

Now, the firm is forced to enable app sideloading, which will happen in early 2024. Apple's security chief is the latest Apple executive to talk openly about the issue and what the company worries will occur when customers can install apps from other platforms.