MoS Chandrashekhar rebuts ‘Washington Post’, says report on Apple hack warnings has “half facts, fully embellished”
MoS Chandrashekhar said that the story is a creative imagination and “click baiting at work masquerading as journalism.”
Union Minister of State for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar has strongly refuted “The Washington Post” report regarding the Indian government’s alleged targeting of Apple. The report claimed that government hackers may have attempted to breach the iPhones of independent Indian journalists and opposition party politicians. Chandrasekhar dismissed the report as containing “half-facts and embellishments.”
Labeling the report as “terrible” and “tedious,” the Union Minister addressed the issue on his social media platform X, stating, “It’s tiring to constantly rebut Washington Post’s poorly constructed narratives. This story is a mix of partial truths and exaggerated details.”
In a story published on December 27 in association with Amnesty International, the Washington Post had reported that certain journalists had been targeted with the spyware on their iPhones, with the latest identified case occurring in October.
In its post on X, “The Washington Post” claimed that following Apple’s warning to independent Indian journalists and opposition party members in October about potential government hacking attempts on their iPhones, actions were promptly taken by officials under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration against Apple.
Following this, Chandrasekhar expressed concern and highlighted the missing part of the story, which involves Apple’s response on October 31. He mentioned, “The story neglects Apple’s response on the day of the threat notifications.”
Expanding on the story, Chandrashekhar quoted Apple’s response, indicating that Apple doesn’t attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker. He added that state-sponsored attackers are well-funded and sophisticated, making their detection reliant on imperfect threat intelligence signals. Apple’s notifications might sometimes be false alarms or undetected attacks.
He underscored that both the Ministry of Electronics & IT and his response aimed to prompt Apple to clarify if their devices are vulnerable and what triggered these notifications. Additionally, Apple was requested to participate in the inquiry led by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), emphasizing that the investigation is ongoing.
“MeitY and my response to this incident has been consistent and clear from the incident – That it is for Apple to explain if their devices are vulnerable and what triggered these notifications. Apple was asked to join the enquiry with IndianCERT and meetings have been held and enquiry is ongoing. Those are the facts.Rest of story is creative imagination & clickbaiting at work masquerading as journalism,” he added.
MoS Chandrashekhar said that the story is a creative imagination and “click baiting at work masquerading as journalism.”
