Indian authorities are criticizing Apple for alerting journalists and lawmakers about hacking.
After alerting multiple Indian journalists and opposition leaders to the possibility that their phones had been compromised by state-sponsored actors, Apple is allegedly coming under criticism and examination from Indian authorities on the security of its products and the precision of its threat detection algorithms.
The government officials were not pleased with Apple’s warnings and wanted the business to find ways to lessen the political harm of its alerts, according to a Washington Post report that cited three people with knowledge of the situation. The official also requested alternate explanations for the alerts from an Apple security specialist, answers that would probably avoid linking the government to the attacks.
According to one of the individuals, “They were really angry.”
All of the people who received Apple’s warnings were opponents of the governing party. Among them was journalist Anand Mangnale, who was looking into the millionaire entrepreneur Gautam Adani. After analyzing Mangnale’s phone, Amnesty International determined that it was contaminated with Pegasus malware, an advanced hacking tool created by the Israeli company NSO Group and distributed only to governmental and law enforcement organizations.
Although the Indian government appears to have been involved in the hacking attempts, Apple did not explicitly accuse it. The Post stated that although Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party has neither acknowledged or disputed using Pegasus to spy on its rivals, the spyware has previously been used to target the party’s critics.
Apple is well-known for taking a firm stand on security and privacy. In certain places, like China, the corporation has encountered difficulties and disputes while adhering to local rules and regulations that can jeopardize the security and privacy of its customers. Additionally, the business and the US government are embroiled in legal battles over the corporation’s refusal to unlock suspects’ iPhones in criminal cases.