agencies
NEW DELHI, Oct 31: The government has ordered an investigation after Opposition MPs claimed that they received warnings of attempts being made by state-sponsored attackers to steal information from their iPhones.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government 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," the minister said in his post.
The probe will be conducted by Cert-In, he said.
In a briefing in Bhopal, Vaishnaw took on the Opposition, saying compulsive critics were indulging in "distraction politics" as they could not tolerate the country's progress under the Prime Minister's leadership. The minister pointed out that Apple had issued such an advisory in 150 countries.
In his post, Vaishnaw said Apple has also claimed that Apple IDs are securely encrypted on devices, making it extremely difficult to access or identify them without the user's explicit permission.
This encryption, he said, safeguards the user's Apple ID and ensures that it remains private and protected.
"We are concerned by the statements we have seen in media from some MPs as well as others about a notification received by them from Apple. The notification received by them, as per media reports, mentions about 'state-sponsored attacks' on their devices. However, much of the information by Apple on this issue seems vague and non-specific in nature," the minister noted.
Vaishnaw said that according to Apple, these notifications may be based on information which is 'incomplete or imperfect'.
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