Apple has warned at least six Indian politicians and other members of political parties and two journalists of their iPhones being targets of state-sponsored attacks, these people said Tuesday.
Shashi Tharoor of the opposition Congress party, Mahua Moitra, a national lawmaker with the regional opposition All India Trinamool Congress, Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena, a party that enjoys considerable political clout across Maharashtra, Raghav Chadha of AAP, general secretary of the CPI(M) and former MP Sitaram Yechury, and Congress leader and spokesperson Pawan Khera said they had received an alert from Apple, warning them that their iPhones had been under attack.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Journalists Siddharth Varadarajan and Sriram Karri and Think Tank ORF India President Samir Saran also tweeted Tuesday that they had received the same warning from Apple.
“Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID,” the alleged Apple alert says. “These attackers are likely targeting you individually because of who you are or what you do. If your device is compromised by a state-sponsored attacker, they may be able to remotely access your sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone.”
Apple advised users who got this alert to switch on the Lockdown mode, a new security feature announced in 2022, to protect people like journalists, politicians, lawyers, and human rights defenders from state-backed spyware attacks. The mode switches off link previews in messages; reduces Safari functionality by disabling features such as just-in-time (JIT) compilers to prevent malicious JavaScripts from running; prevents users from opening attachments; and disabling receipt of FaceTime calls with contacts you haven’t communicated before.
More to follow.
