Apple sends experts to India after hacker threat warning


Apple is sending a team of experts to India after politicians there received warnings on their iPhones that they’re being targeted by hackers, say local media. It’s not yet known if the alerts are genuine.

The mobile phone giant made the move as local media in the emerging tech superpower reported that politicians across the Asian country had received “a warning message on their iPhone claiming that state-sponsored hackers are targeting their devices.”

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Earlier this month, global media reported that India’s cybersecurity agency CERT-IN had received complaints of mobile phone hacking from opposition politicians and notified Apple.

Now, it would appear that the matter has escalated. The Apple investigative team will be made up of cybersecurity and other technical experts, who will delve into the issue to determine whether the warnings were valid or not.

Apple appears to be doubtful that the claims of nation-state-motivated threats are genuine, according to Indian media, which quoted the tech giant as saying, “It does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.”

Earlier this year, Apple issued a statement saying that such attacks cost millions and are, therefore, quite rare.

“State-sponsored attacks are highly complex, cost millions of dollars to develop, and often have a short shelf life,” it said. “The vast majority of users will never be targeted by such attacks.”