"Who is misleading the nation, is clear": Chhattisgarh Deputy CM claims Apple threat notifications on his phone

Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], November 2 : A day after several Opposition leaders alleged hacking of their iPhones by the government after receiving an alert from Apple warning them of "state-sponsored attackers", Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister TS Deo Singh on Wednesday claimed that he too has received the alert message on his Gmail.
Speaking to ANI, Singh also hit out at the Centre and said that it is clear who is misleading the nation.
"...I have got this message on my Gmail, from the company...who is misleading the nation, is clear. It is clearly written here that 'Apple believes you're being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who're trying to remotely compromise the Iphone associated with your Apple ID'...Apple has sent this message..." Singh said while showing a notification on his phone.
Several other political leaders also reported similar alerts from Apple.
TMC MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' Pawan Khera, Shashi Tharoor and AAP MP Raghav Chaddha were among those who said they had received an alert from Apple.
The leaders shared the purported screenshots of the warning received on their Apple devices.
Meanwhile, Apple on Tuesday, officially announced that it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.
According to Apple, state-sponsored attacks are often short-lived and are designed to evade detection and exploit vulnerabilities that may not be known to the public.
"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," Apple said in a 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.
Apple has been sending out these notifications since late 2021, whenever it suspects some activity resembles a state-sponsored attack. It has so far notified individuals in 150 countries.
However, Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government has asked Apple to join an investigation into the allegations.
"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 X.
The minister said that 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.