“No Resolution on Apple Summon Yet”: Government on Allegations of Phone Hacking Attempt

The Parliament IT-Panel chairman, Pratap Rao Jadhav, informed CNN-News18 that the organization is considering calling Apple over the “alert” of “state-sponsored attacks” that some opposition leaders claimed to have received on Tuesday. This is a new phase in the “snoopgate” claims.

“At a future meeting, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) may call Apple executives to discuss the recent’state-sponsored assaults’ on a number of prominent Indians. According to a committee secretariat worker, the committee is taking the situation very seriously and has voiced “deep concern.”

The central government had on Tuesday initiated an inquiry and invited tech giant Apple to join the probe with genuine, correct evidence on the “alleged state-sponsored attacks,” expressing “concerns” about the espionage accusations made by certain opposition leaders.

Following the accusations made by many members of Parliament, Congress Lok Sabha member and IT committee member Karti Chidambaram sent a letter to the chairman of the IT committee asking that Apple be called before the panel.

Additionally, he requested in his letter that the impacted MPs be permitted to be called as witnesses.

Apple, however, released a statement on Tuesday claiming that it does not link any particular state-sponsored attacker to the warning alerts. This occurred as a number of opposition members of parliament said they had received communications from Apple alerting them to the possibility of “state-sponsored attackers attempting to remotely compromise” their iPhones.

Members of Parliament, such as Shashi Tharoor of the Congress, Mahua Moitra of the Trinamool Congress, and Raghav Chadha of the Aam Aadmi Party, shared a screenshot of the message that appeared on their phones. It said, “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.”