Amid the Opposition’s claim of a “snooping attack" by the government, tech giant Apple on Tuesday issued a statement saying that “it is possible that threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected." This came as several Opposition MPs claimed to have received messages from Apple warning them of “state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise" their iPhones.An issue with a computer program's functioning, known as an algorithm malfunction, has been identified as the cause behind the delivery of these emails to opposition leaders as per govt sources.
Apple does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state sponsored attacker. 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.”
Several Opposition leaders, including Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi and Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Shashi Tharoor said they had received messages from Apple on their phones and emails, warning that "state-sponsored attackers" may be targeting their iPhone.Priyanka Chaturvedi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw over the issue.