<
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/27/india-apple-iphone-hacking/>
"NEW DELHI — A day after Apple warned independent Indian journalists and
opposition party politicians in October that government hackers may have tried
to break into their iPhones, officials under Prime Minister Narendra Modi
promptly took action — against Apple.
Officials from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) publicly questioned
whether the Silicon Valley company’s internal threat algorithms were faulty and
announced an investigation into the security of Apple devices.
In private, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, senior Modi
administration officials called Apple’s India representatives to demand that
the company help soften the political impact of the warnings. They also
summoned an Apple security expert from outside the country to a meeting in New
Delhi, where government representatives pressed the Apple official to come up
with alternative explanations for the warnings to users, the people said. They
spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
“They were really angry,” one of those people said.
The visiting Apple official stood by the company’s warnings. But the intensity
of the Indian government effort to discredit and strong-arm Apple disturbed
executives at the company’s headquarters, in Cupertino, Calif., and illustrated
how even Silicon Valley’s most powerful tech companies can face pressure from
the increasingly assertive leadership of the world’s most populous country —
and one of the most critical technology markets of the coming decade.
The recent episode also exemplified the dangers facing government critics in
India and the lengths to which the Modi administration will go to deflect
suspicions that it has engaged in hacking against its perceived enemies,
according to digital rights groups, industry workers and Indian journalists."
Via Violet Blue’s
Cybersecurity Roundup: January 2, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-2-95718700
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
