The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology should call for an urgent meeting to examine the recent threat notification messages issued to several prominent iPhone users in India to investigate the “potential involvement of state-supported hackers and their motivations”, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas said in a letter to the chairperson of the panel on Wednesday.
Several Opposition leaders and MPs — including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC MP Mahua Moitra, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, and Congress MPs K.C. Venugopal and Shashi Tharoor — received notifications this week alerting them against an effort to remotely compromise their iPhones by “state-sponsored attackers”.
In his letter, Mr. Brittas said that the panel should examine the “nature and credibility” of the security threat identified by Apple, the extent of “vulnerability of Indian iPhone users to hacking attempts”, the potential involvement of “state-supported hackers and their motivations” and the adequacy of cyber security measures in place to protect the privacy and security of mobile phone users in India.
