Modi government has reportedly asked Apple to ‘soften hack warnings’ after it sent alerts to journalists and politicians about potential hacking attempts on their iPhone by ‘state-sponsored attackers’, The Washington Post reported.
It was reported that officials under the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government questioned whether Apple’s internal threat algorithms were faulty and announced an investigation into the security of its iPhones.
Soon afterwards, government officials started exerting pressure on Apple to downplay the political impact of the warnings and demanded they come up with alternative explanations. “They also summoned an Apple security expert from outside the country to a meeting in New Delhi, where government representatives pressed the Apple official to come up with alternative explanations for the warnings to users,” the newspaper reported.
“We have instituted a technical investigation in the reported matter. So far, Apple has cooperated fully in the investigation process,” the Union ministry of electronics and information technology, responded to The Washington Post in a statement.
In October 2023, several Opposition party leaders in India received a warning by Apple of ‘state-sponsored’ attackers targeting their phones.
