Today, some of the top Indian leaders received a weird message from Apple. The message was an alert that warned them about a “State-Sponsored Attack” on their iPhones. It wasn’t just politicians who got these messages but some journalists have received the same alert also. These alerts have created a buzz on the internet as the targeted leaders took this issue to X (formerly Twitter).
People who are said to have been targeted by this spyware include Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Shashi Tharoor, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi, and more. Here’s the list of all the politicians and journalists who are said to have been targeted by spyware.
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According to The Quint, these are some of the top politicians, journalists, and researchers who have received the alert from Apple.
Along with these politicians, Apple sent the alert to some journalists and researchers as well. Two of them are:
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Trinamool Congress MP, Mahua Moitra shared a screenshot of the alert on X. It said, “Apple believes you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.”
On a support page, Apple mentioned that these state-sponsored attackers could target users on their identity or professional activity. It says, “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.”