Amid the ongoing ‘snoopgate’ controversy, Apple issued a statement saying that some threat alerts may be false alarms.
In its clarification regarding the charges alleged by the Opposition leaders, Apple said that it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.
The clarification also said, “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 in the future”.
Earlier in the day, TMC MP Mahua Moitra had claimed that the government had tried to hack her phone and email. She posted screenshots of the warning messages that she had received from Apple saying that this is “worse than emergency”.
In her post on X, Moitra had mentioned that other Opposition leaders had also received the same message. The TMC MP is currently embroiled in the cash-for-query controversy allegations.
Other Opposition leaders such as Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, and Akhilesh Yadav had also claimed to have received the Apple alert.
The alert read, “These attackers are likely targeting you individually because of who you are or what you do.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that the government was indulging in “distraction politics” on the Adani issue. He said party leaders such as K C Venugopal, Pawan Khera, Supriya Shrinate and several other opposition leaders have got the Apple warning.
Gandhi’s remark came hours after leaders like Mahua Moitra, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shashi Tharoor and Pawan Khera claimed to have received the alert from Apple.
In a press conference, Rahul Gandhi showed a copy of the warning e-mail that several opposition leaders received. He said, ” Do as much phone tapping as you want, I don’t care. You can take my phone, I am not scared.”
The Wayanad MP hit out at the government saying that “as soon as Adani is touched, intelligence agencies, snooping are deployed.”
