Following recent threat notifications received by some politicians in India, Apple has formed a team to investigate the incident. A team of Apple’s technical and cybersecurity experts will be sent to India to look into the issue, according to reliable sources cited by news agency IANS.

The notifications, which warned the recipients that their devices were being targeted by state-sponsored hackers, sparked concerns about the security of sensitive information.

It’s investigation is currently being spearheaded by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

In October, several prominent opposition leaders, including Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena, Mahua Moitra of Trinamool Congress, Pawan Khera and Shashi Tharoor of Congress, Raghav Chadha of AAP, Sitaram Yechury of CPI(M), and Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party, received notifications from Apple warning them that their devices were being targeted by state-sponsored hackers.

For those unaware, Apple’s threat notification system serves as an alert mechanism for users who may have been targeted by state-sponsored attacks.

This system, designed to detect suspicious activity, triggers a “Threat Notification” in the form of an email and iMessage to the affected user’s associated email addresses and phone numbers. The recent notifications received by several politicians and other individuals were likely generated by this system.

Apple has previously stated that it sent “threat notifications” to individuals whose accounts are located in nearly 150 countries. The company has also clarified that it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker.

Apple

Apple has emphasized that certain individuals, such as politicians and activists, are more likely to be targeted due to their unique identities or professional roles. 

The Cupertino company further clarified that, unlike typical cyberattacks, “state-sponsored attackers” allocate significant resources to focus on a specific, limited group of targets and their associated devices. This high level of precision makes these attacks significantly more challenging to detect and thwart.

The investigation is expected to shed light on the nature of the threat notifications and the potential risks posed to the affected individuals. Apple’s involvement in the investigation is a significant step in addressing the concerns raised by the threat notifications.

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