iPhone warning notifications to MPs: Apple officials meet CERT-In

Apple's cyber security executives from the US have met officials of CERT-In regarding the issue of warning notifications sent to some opposition leaders, a senior government official said. The government issued a show cause notice to Apple last month after several MPs received a warning notification on their iPhones.

The opposition leaders claimed they received an alert from Apple warning them of "state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise" their iPhones and alleged hacking by the government.

“Apple team met CERT-In. Now CERT-In has to submit its report based on its findings,” news agency PTI quoted an official from the ministry of state for electronics and information technology (Meity), as saying.

IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Apple has to reply to the notice which needs to be done by their global cyber security team. The Apple team was scheduled to meet Indian cyber security watchdog CERT-In by the end of November.

According to the official, there is no deadline for the submission of the report. Meanwhile, CERT-In, which comes under Meity, will submit the report after their investigation.

What is the issueLast month, several opposition leaders claimed that they have received an alert from Apple warning them of "state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise" their iPhones. At that time, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw rejected the claim, assuring a thorough probe into the matter.

The MPs who received the warning notification include Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, K C Venugopal, Supriya Shrinate, T S Singhdeo and Bhupinder S Hooda.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Aam Aadmi Party's Raghav Chadha, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi and some aides of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also received the alert.

Vaishnaw also said that the iPhone maker has also issued the same advisory across 150 countries.