In what has become a shocking charge that's as sharp as the Pegasus spyware scandal, a group of opposition MPs have alleged that there has been a 'state-sponspored' attempt to hack their iPhones. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra took to social media on Tuesday - October 31 and shared that they have received alerts from Apple that their iPhones faced a possible state-sponsored hacking attempt. 

Their claims have sparked fresh wave of fury against the ruling BJP regime on whether it is invoking cyberattack against the opposition members. According to reports, Apple has sent the alerts through an SMS and email to both the members of the Parliament and asked them to upgrade to the latest iOS 17.1 update. Both the MPs were also urged to turn on the Lockdown mode to fortify the iPhone from all possible threats. 

Along with Shashi Tharoor and Mahua Moitra, other opposition MPs like Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena, Asaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM, Raghav Chadha of Aam Aadmi Party, and Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate have also received similar alerts from Apple on Monday. 

Shashi Tharoor took to social media and wrote, "Received from an Apple ID, threat-notifications@apple.com, which I have verified. Authenticity confirmed. Glad to keep underemployed officials busy at the expenses of taxpayers like me! Nothing more important to do?" Mahua Moitra scathingly wrote, "Received text & email from Apple warning me govt trying to hack into my phone & email. Home Minister of India - get a life. Adani & PMO bullies - your fear makes me pity you." 

In five points, let's take a look on how the BJP regime and Apple reacted to the events, 

• After the Pegasus spyware scandal broke out in 2021, Apple introduced Lockdown Mode with the iOS 16 in the following year and with the Lockdown Mode, the spyware will not be able to breach in and access anything on iPhones or iPads or Macs. Reacting to the current events after several MPs alleged 'state-sponsored' hacking attempt on their iPhones, Apple said that some alarms could be false. 
• Apple issued a clarification which read that the company doesn't attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker. The company said, "State-sponsored attackers are very well funded and sophisticated, and their attacks evolve over time." 
• "Detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete. It's possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected. We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as they may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behavior to evade detection in the future", the company added. 
• Reacting to the attacks from the opposition over the alleged state-sponsored hacking attempt, the Union government has announced an investigation into the alert issued by Apple and the government has also asked the tech giant to join the probe.  
• Taking to social media, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government takes its role of protecting the privacy and security of all citizens very seriously and will investigate to get to the bottom of these notifications. "In light of such information and widespread speculation, we have also asked Apple to join the investigation with real, accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks", the minister added. 

Later, Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters that the government is taking the matter seriously and said that Apple's warning message was not unique to India but had been issued globally. The minister said, "Apple has issued this advisory in 150 countries. It is clear from their mail that they don't have specific information. They have sent this alert based on an estimate." He also slammed the opposition members stating that the people who cannot see the growth of the country are doing destructive politics.