New Delhi: At least two people in India received notifications from Apple Inc. alerting them about a targeted “mercenary spyware attack” on their iPhones Tuesday. Iltija Mufti, political adviser and daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, and Pushparaj Deshpande, author and founder of Samruddha Bharat Foundation, a socio-political organisation, reported receiving the alerts.
Mufti and Deshpande also received emails from Apple’s threat notification team. However, Apple only used Pegasus as an example in the alert, and did not say who was behind the attack or if it was state-sponsored surveillance.
“Apple detected a targeted mercenary spyware attack against your iPhone. Apple detected that you are being targeted by a mercenary spyware attack that is remotely trying to compromise the iPhone,” the message read.
Got an Apple alert that my phone’s been hacked by Pegasus which GOI has admittedly procured & weaponised to harass critics & political opponents. BJP shamelessly snoops on women only because we refuse to toe their line. How low will you stoop? @PMOIndia @HMOIndia pic.twitter.com/ohzbCO8txI
— Iltija Mufti (@IltijaMufti_) July 10, 2024
Speaking to ThePrint, Mufti said, “This cannot be a non-state sponsored attack. I had updated my iPhone 15 plus two weeks ago. I can’t go to the police, they won’t do anything. This time Apple hasn’t attributed the attack to a state-sponsored spyware but this can’t negate the fact that it is not state-sponsored. This is being orchestrated at the highest level.”
Both Mufti and Deshpande said that they were talking to tech experts on the matter.
“I use an iPhone 13, and this is the first time I am getting such an alert. Apple has suggested we follow some steps and put the phone on lockdown mode. This shall slow down the phone, but should offer some security in terms of protecting data. A PIL against state-sponsored spyware is pending before the Supreme Court. We will consider being a party to it,” Deshpande said.
In a post on X, Mufti wrote, “Got an Apple alert that my phone’s been hacked by Pegasus, which GOI (Government of India) has admittedly procured & weaponised to harass critics & political opponents. BJP shamelessly snoops on women only because we refuse to toe their line. How low will you stoop? @PMOIndia @HMOIndia”.
In April this year, Apple had issued similar alerts to users in India and 91 other countries about a certain “mercenary software” targeting their phones without attributing the attack to anyone. This time, however, Apple dropped the word “state-sponsored”, which was used in previous notifications.
In October 2023, such alerts were flagged by leaders of Opposition parties, including Congress’s Shashi Tharoor, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha and Trinamool Congress’s Mahua Moitra. These alerts were also received by The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan and South Asia Editor at the Organised Crime and Corruption Report Project Anand Mangnale.
In 2021, the Supreme Court had formed a committee composed of technical experts to look into the allegations of surveillance using Pegasus, a software developed by Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO group, following news reports of unauthorised and illegal use of the spyware on journalists, activists and politicians. In August 2022, the committee had noted that no conclusive evidence was found on spyware targets on the phones, but claimed that the government had not cooperated with this committee.
On its support portal, the iPhone maker describes “mercenary spyware attacks” as “exceptionally well-funded” and says that they evolve over time.
“Apple relies solely on internal threat-intelligence information and investigations to detect such attacks. Although our investigations can never achieve absolute certainty, Apple threat notifications are high-confidence alerts that a user has been individually targeted by a mercenary spyware attack and should be taken very seriously,” the company’s policy statement reads. “We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as that may help mercenary spyware attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future.”
It adds, “The extreme cost, sophistication and worldwide nature of mercenary spyware attacks makes them some of the most advanced digital threats in existence today. As a result, Apple does not attribute the attacks or resulting threat notifications to any specific attackers or geographical regions.”
ThePrint reached Apple spokespersons via email. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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