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NEW DELHI: Apple is set to stand its ground on its “alerts” on “state-sponsored attackers” attempting to hack some iPhones.
With the government following up its announcement to ask the Cupertino-based electronics giant, the iPhone maker said that it is working out a strategy to convey the reasons for its alerts and is contemplating flying executives who specialise in threat notifications, sources said.
“We are assessing the situation and are in constant touch with our headquarters, considering the urgency on the matter and seriousness around it,” one of the sources said. “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.”
Asked about the angle of ‘state-sponsored attacker’ tag in its alerts, the sources said that this emanates due to “specific” attempts at hacking. “While it is too early to spell out the specific reasons, one of the criteria that is broadly used to classify any hacking incident as being a state-sponsored attack is when the level of attempted break-in is highly sophisticated, which can only be carried out only by certain specialised agencies that only work with governments… we have clear reasons to mark them as such in our alerts,” a source said.
On Tuesday, when opposition levelled the snooping charge, the company released a statement where it also conceded that some of the threat notifications “may be false alarms”.
“Apple does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker. 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. 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,” the company had said.
The government has moved rapidly on the issue after the alerts created a political furore with opposition parties accusing the government of snooping. The Centre had responded to anti-hacking alerts, by saying that they mark a reflection on the iPhone maker, which should explain why its much-vaunted system could not repulse the attacks.
“CERT-In has started its probe… they (Apple) will cooperate in this probe,” IT secretary S Krishnan said on the sidelines of an event, stating that a notice had been issued to Apple. Interestingly, CERT-IN (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) had flagged the vulnerability of iPhones before Apple’s anti- hacking alerts came to be known.
Apple, which had come out with a statement on Tuesday after opposition leaders levelled the snooping charge, has not come out with a further comment on the issue, including on the comments made by Krishnan.
With the government following up its announcement to ask the Cupertino-based electronics giant, the iPhone maker said that it is working out a strategy to convey the reasons for its alerts and is contemplating flying executives who specialise in threat notifications, sources said.
“We are assessing the situation and are in constant touch with our headquarters, considering the urgency on the matter and seriousness around it,” one of the sources said. “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.”
Asked about the angle of ‘state-sponsored attacker’ tag in its alerts, the sources said that this emanates due to “specific” attempts at hacking. “While it is too early to spell out the specific reasons, one of the criteria that is broadly used to classify any hacking incident as being a state-sponsored attack is when the level of attempted break-in is highly sophisticated, which can only be carried out only by certain specialised agencies that only work with governments… we have clear reasons to mark them as such in our alerts,” a source said.
On Tuesday, when opposition levelled the snooping charge, the company released a statement where it also conceded that some of the threat notifications “may be false alarms”.
“Apple does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker. 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. 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,” the company had said.
The government has moved rapidly on the issue after the alerts created a political furore with opposition parties accusing the government of snooping. The Centre had responded to anti-hacking alerts, by saying that they mark a reflection on the iPhone maker, which should explain why its much-vaunted system could not repulse the attacks.
“CERT-In has started its probe… they (Apple) will cooperate in this probe,” IT secretary S Krishnan said on the sidelines of an event, stating that a notice had been issued to Apple. Interestingly, CERT-IN (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) had flagged the vulnerability of iPhones before Apple’s anti- hacking alerts came to be known.
Apple, which had come out with a statement on Tuesday after opposition leaders levelled the snooping charge, has not come out with a further comment on the issue, including on the comments made by Krishnan.
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