'No Decision on Summon to Apple Yet': Govt on Phone Hacking Attempt Claims

In a fresh development in “snoopgate” allegations, the Parliament IT-Panel chief Pratap Rao Jadhav told CNN-News18 that it is mulling whether to summon Apple or not over the “alert” of “state-sponsored attacks” that some opposition leaders on Tuesday claimed they received.

“The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) is contemplating the summoning of Apple representatives during an upcoming meeting to address the recent ‘state-sponsored attacks’ on several public figures in India. The committee’s secretariat has expressed ‘deep concern’ and is treating the matter with the ‘utmost seriousness’,” says an official of the Committee secretariat.

Expressing “concerns” over the snooping claims made by some opposition leaders, the central government had on Tuesday ordered an investigation and asked tech giant Apple to join the investigation with real, accurate information on the “alleged state-sponsored attacks”.

Congress Lok Sabha, MP and member of the IT committee Karti Chidambaram has written the letter to the chairman of the committee for IT, requesting for Apple to be summoned before the panel after the allegations of several members of Parliament

In his letter, he has also asked for allowing affected MPs to be asked to depose as witnesses.

Meanwhile, Apple on Tuesday issued a statement saying that it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker. This came as several Opposition MPs claimed to have received messages from Apple warning them of “state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their iPhones.

MPs including including Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, and Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha shared the screenshot of the message received on their phones, which read “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.”