Apple mulls sending experts to India over 'state-sponsored' hack attempt alerts: Report

To defend its stand regarding "alerts" on "state-sponsored attackers" attempting to breach certain iPhones, Apple is reportedly mulling sending executives specialised in 'threat notifications' to explain the rationale behind these alerts.

Several Opposition leaders, including TMC's Mahua Moitra and Congress's Shashi Tharoor, claimed they had received "state-sponsored" attack notification from Apple through an SMS and email.

"We are assessing the situation and are in constant touch with our headquarters, considering the urgency on the matter and seriousness around it,” a source told The Times of India. “If the need be, we will involve the teams who are tasked with privacy and device security matters for a broader perspective on why certain specific alerts are issued."

Regarding the use of the term "state-sponsored attacker" in the alerts, sources further explained to the publication that it is applied when the attempted breach is highly sophisticated, which in turn, indicates the work of certain agencies specialised in government-level operations.

Meanwhile, the government's cybersecurity agency CERT-In has started its investigation into the issue of the Apple threat notification and a notice has been sent to the company, IT Secretary S Krishnan had said on Thursday.

iPhone-maker Apple Inc in a statement earlier said it was possible that some threat notifications may be "false alarms" and some attacks may not be detected. It, however, refused to say what triggered warnings received by Opposition leaders.

"Apple does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker," the firm had said in a statement on October 31.

State-sponsored attackers, it had said, 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.

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

(With PTI inputs)