Opposition Leaders Allege Hacking Attempts By Government; Are You At Risk As Well?

On Tuesday, 31st October, several opposition leaders including Trinamool Congress (TMC) Member of Parliament, Mahua Moitra, Congress's Shashi Tharoor, Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi, SP's Akhilesh Yadav, AAP's Raghav Chadha and others have raised concerns about alleged hacking attempts on her phone and email by the Indian government.

Mahua Moitra shared screenshots of a warning message from Apple on her social media handle X (formerly twitter), which read, "ALERT: State-sponsored attackers may be targeting your iPhone." In her post, Mahua also mentioned that Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi and other leaders of the INDIA alliance had received similar warnings.

In a later post she equated the situation to the Emergency era in India saying, "So far list of INDIAns that @HMOIndia have tried to hack have been myself, @yadavakhilesh, @raghav_chadha, @ShashiTharoor, @priyankac19, @SitaramYechury, @Pawankhera, & others in office of @RahulGandhi. This is worse than Emergency. India is being run by low life Peeping Toms."

Senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also confirmed that he received a warning from Apple about potential hacking attempts on his phone and email. Tharoor expressed his concern by tagging the official Prime Minister's Office India account and asking if there was "nothing more important to do."

It's worth noting that Mahua Moitra is currently under investigation by the Parliament Ethics Committee regarding a cash-for-query case. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey accused her of accepting cash and favors in exchange for asking questions in the Lok Sabha related to businessman Gautam Adani, allegedly at the request of businessman Darshan Hiranandani. Moitra has been summoned to appear before the committee on 2nd November after expressing her inability to testify on 31st October.

SO WHAT DOES APPLE IPHONE'S THREAT NOTIFICATIONS MEAN?

As per information on the Apple website, "Apple threat notifications are designed to inform and assist users who may have been targeted by state-sponsored attackers. These users are individually targeted because of who they are or what they do. Unlike traditional cybercriminals, state-sponsored attackers apply exceptional resources to target a very small number of specific individuals and their devices, which makes these attacks much harder to detect and prevent. State-sponsored attacks are highly complex, cost millions of dollars to develop and often have a short shelf life. The vast majority of users will never be targeted by such attacks."

Apple further also addds that such notification provide additional steps which notified users should undertake in order to protect their devices including enabling 'Lockdown Mode'.

HOW CAN NOTIFIED USERS TURN ON LOCKDOWN MODE ON APPLE DEVICES

Well, it is quite simple! Apple has also laid out the set of steps to follow in order to turn on 'Lockdown Mode'. Here is what you can do:

How to turn on Lockdown Mode on iPhone or iPad

• Open the Settings app.
• Tap Privacy & Security.
• Scroll down, tap Lockdown Mode, then tap Turn On Lockdown Mode.
• Tap Turn On Lockdown Mode.
• Tap Turn On & Restart, then enter your device passcode.

How to turn on Lockdown Mode on Mac

• Choose the Apple menu > System Settings.
• From the sidebar, click Privacy & Security.
• Scroll down, click Lockdown Mode, then click Turn On.
• Click Turn on Lockdown Mode. You may need to enter the user password.
• Click Turn On & Restart.