The government had asked Apple for details of the alleged state-sponsored cyberattacks on Indians last year and would act on the same, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada said in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Subsequently, in a supplementary question during the Question Hour, Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha asked the minister if the government had taken cognisance of such attacks. In October 2023, Chadha, other Opposition leaders and journalists had received notifications from Apple about potential state-sponsored spyware attacks on their phones. “I, along with several members of this House, particularly those who sit on the Opposition benches, are victims of something called ‘state-sponsored spyware attacks’, whereby our mobile phones notified us that a state-sponsored cyberattack took place, which was attempting to infiltrate our mobile phone devices,” Chadha said. While he denied that there was any state-sponsored (referring to the Indian government) “hacking or tracking”, Prasada said CERT-In or the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team under the Information Technology Ministry, is in touch with Apple. “CERT India is in touch with Apple and we are in the process of getting information from Apple on where and how they came to this conclusion and if they can share with us the data. Our agencies will act on that,” he said. He added that there is coordination between his Ministry, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Security Advisor when it comes to cyber security. In response to the question by Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) MP S Niranjan Reddy, the minister said the government had “institutionalised a nationwide integrated and coordinated system to deal with cyberattacks in the country”.
