Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of making an effort to hack the mobile phones of senior opposition politicians. This statement followed reports of warning messages received by some lawmakers from Apple, which suggested that they were being targeted by state-sponsored attackers attempting to compromise their associated iPhones.
Lawmakers shared screenshots of the notifications on social media, prompting Gandhi to assert during a press conference in New Delhi, “Hack us all you want, but we (opposition) will not stop questioning you,” directed at Modi.
Responding to the lawmakers’ concerns, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expressed apprehension and announced that the government had requested Apple’s participation in the investigation. Apple, in its response, clarified that it did not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker, emphasizing the complexity of identifying and detecting evolving state-sponsored attacks.
Jairam Ramesh, spokesperson for Gandhi’s Congress party, dismissed Apple’s statement as a “long-winded non-denial” of a security breach. Notably, reports emerged in 2021 indicating that the Indian government had allegedly employed Israeli-made Pegasus spyware for surveillance purposes, including monitoring numerous journalists, activists, and politicians, among them Gandhi.
Despite mounting inquiries, the government has refrained from responding to queries regarding the procurement of Pegasus spyware for surveillance by India or any of its state agencies.
