Apple’s reply on device vulnerability not totally clear: Chandrasekhar

New Delhi: The government is still waiting for a clear reply from iPhone maker Apple on iPhone alert sent to opposition political leaders around five months back on alleged hacking of their devices by state-backed hackers.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government has asked Apple two questions: whether their devices are safe, and if so the reason for the alert was sent to opposition members.

“In my humble opinion, this is not something that any proprietary platform will completely concede whether they have vulnerabilities in their platform. There’s an instinct in any platform to deny that vulnerability exists,” he said.

“We are asking a clear question, is your phone vulnerable? The answer to that is not totally unambiguous,” Chandrasekhar said.

In October, several opposition leaders claimed they have received an alert from Apple warning them of state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their iPhones and alleged hacking by the government.

Among those who received the threat notification on their iPhones were Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera, K C Venugopal, Supriya Shrinate, T S Singhdeo, and Bhupinder S Hooda.

Trinamool Congress’ Mahua Moitra, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, and Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi and some aides of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi also received the notification.

“Allegations when they were made, on that particular day we said very clearly this is for Apple to answer because it involves their device.

“We certainly have no R&D (research and development) capability in the government to understand what is in the iOS and what is not, and certainly Apple is not going to tell us its proprietary technology. So we called them,” Chandrasekhar said.

He said that CERT-In has made them party to the investigation.

“They have given a number of clarifications, including on the same day that this has nothing to do with the state actor. But we pressed them further that if it has nothing to do with the state actor, then what is this notification? They have given us some clarification. They continue to... but CERT is continuing their investigation,” the minister said.

An email query sent to Apple elicited no reply in this regard.

Chandrasekhar rejected allegations that the government in any way is trying to transgress privacy of people or muzzle freedom of speech and expression.

“We are absolutely clear that nothing we say in any rules, nothing we say in any law will ever transgress into or interfere with the fundamental rights of any of our citizens. As a matter of fact we support it,” he said.

The government is fully committed to ensuring that internet is safe and trusted, the minister said.

He said some people take the view that free speech is an absolute right and it has to be protected which may be true for the US but the Indian constitution has reasonable restrictions on it.

“There are restrictions to it that you cannot say anything that is illegal, unlawful or against national security. There is a fundamental right to free speech.

“Fundamental right to free speech does not mean you have a fundamental right to lie, or provoke or create public order disturbances because you are inciting violence,” the minister said.