Apple clarified that it does not attribute these notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker
The team will collaborate with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to further examine the matter.
The US-based tech giant Apple is sending a team of technical and cybersecurity experts to investigate the recent issue involving Indian politicians receiving threat notifications from their devices.
According to reports, the team will collaborate with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to further examine the matter.
In October, several opposition MPs, including Priyanka Chaturvedi, Mahua Moitra, Pawan Khera, Shashi Tharoor, Raghav Chadha, Sitaram Yechury, and Akhilesh Yadav, reported receiving notifications from Apple indicating that their devices were targeted by state-sponsored hackers.
Expressing “concerns” over the snooping claims made by the opposition leaders, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said an investigation has been ordered and asked tech giant Apple to join the investigation with real, accurate information on the “alleged state-sponsored attacks”.
Apple clarified that it does not attribute these notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker and acknowledged the possibility of false alarms. The company emphasized the sophistication of state-sponsored attackers and the challenges in detecting such attacks with imperfect threat intelligence signals.
“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. We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behavior to evade detection,” Apple said.
Meanwhile, Google and Apple continue to voice their concern about the recent laws that force them to allow people to sideload apps on Android and iOS, respectively. But most of you already know that Android has always allowed installing apps from other app stores, which doesn’t sit well with Apple and Tim Cook has repeatedly talked about the reasons.
Now, the company is being compelled to allow sideloading of apps, which is coming in early 2024 and Apple’s security head is the latest Apple executive to speak openly about the matter and what the company fears when people get the choice to install apps from other platforms.
