Apple clarification only confirms Rahul Gandhi's claims: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress on Tuesday hit back at the US mobile phone maker Apple after it clarified that it's possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, terming iPhone maker's clarification a "long-winded non-denial" which only confirms party leader Rahul Gandhi's claims.

In a post on X, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "Apple’s clarification is a long-winded non-denial… it only confirms what Rahul Gandhi said in his press conference today."

Apple’s clarification is a long-winded non-denial… it only confirms what @RahulGandhi said in his press conference today. https://t.co/z4gDkGAjgi

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 31, 2023

His remarks came soon after Apple in a statement said that "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," it said.

"We are unable to provide information about what causes us to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behavior to evade detection in the future," it added.

It further said that Apple has sent "Threat Notifications" to individuals whose accounts are in nearly 150 countries. The response from the US-based Apple came hours after several Opposition MPs and leaders claimed to have received a notification from Apple stating that their devices could be targeted by '"state-sponsored attackers".

Earlier in the day, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi slammed the Centre saying that many of his office members, party leaders, and Opposition leaders have received alerts on alleged attempts to hack their Apple devices.

He was addressing a press conference.

Gandhi also said that this bid to hack the phones of political leaders was the “act of criminals and thieves and not of an honest person, but we are not scared".

The Congress MP from Kerala's Wayanad slammed the government and said, "Distraction politics is being done. Entire opposition gets Apple notice. All the people in my office have got this message. Venugopal has got. Supriya Shrinate, Pawan Khera, TS Singh Deo, all of them have got the alert mail."

He showed the copy of the mail received by several opposition leaders from their phone manufacturer about "state-sponsored attackers trying to compromise their phone".

"Very few people are fighting against this but we are not scared. You can do as much (phone) tapping as you want, I don't care. If you want to take my phone, I will give it to you," the Congress leader said.

To a question by IANS, after Pegasus again phones were being targetted, what is the next step of the party, he said, "In the last Pegasus inquiry, my name was also there. That disappeared. That tells you the situation of the country."

"Our job as an opposition is to make people understand and I am very happy that more and more people are understanding what is going on. This is clearly a sign of panic, this is not just one per cent this is the whole opposition. Thus is obviously not done by someone who is honest. This is the work of thieves and criminals. Only thieves and criminals will do this," he said.