‘Story is half facts’: Govt refutes claims that it tried hacking Apple iPhones of opposition leaders, journalists

MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar has refuted the claims made by US-based news outlet Washington Post, regarding the story about threat notifications sent to prominent opposition leaders as well as few journalists. In his post, Chandrasekhar said that the ‘story is half facts’ and ‘fully embellished’. 

In his post his said, “Rebutting @washingtonpost's terrible story telling is tiresome, but someone has to do it. This story is half facts, fully embellished  Left out of the story is Apples response on Oct 31-  day of threat notifications. 

He highlighted the statement issued by Apple after prominent political leaders claimed that they were getting ‘threat notifications’ from Apple saying ‘state-sponsored attackers are targeting their iPhones. The statement read, “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 behaviour to evade detection in the future”

Chandrasekhar further said that the government has been clear about the notifications and the future course of action needed to be taken in this case. He said, “@GoI_MeitY's & my response to this incident has been consistent and clear from the incident -   That it is for Apple to explain if their devices are vulnerable and what triggered these notifications.

He also claimed that the investigation regarding the notifications is still on and Apple is also working on it. Chandrasekhar added, “Apple was asked to join the enquiry wth @IndianCERT and meetings have been held and enquiry is ongoing. Those are the facts. Rest of story is creative imagination & clickbaiting at work masquerading as journalism.”

Rebutting @washingtonpost 's terrible story telling is tiresome, but someone has to do it.

➡️This story is half facts, fully embellished 😅

➡️Left out of the story is Apples response on Oct 31- day of threat notifications

“Apple does not attribute the threat notifications to… https://t.co/6XhRC8QVBu

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) December 28, 2023

Also read: Apple’s cyber security team meets Indian agency over matter of iPhone threat notifications

Also read: Apple’s ‘state-sponsored attackers’ alert: What it means and how to avoid getting hacked