BJP's Amit Malviya alleges George Soros link in iPhone hacking row

A day after several opposition leaders claimed that they received alert messages from Apple, warning them of 'state-sponsored attackers', Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT Cell chief Amit Malviya on Wednesday alleged that the matter is linked to American billionaire George Soros.

The BJP IT Cell chief replied to a thread on the social media platform, X, which allegedly busted the link between Soros and 'access now', mentioned as 'digital security helpline' by the Apple notification received by the opposition leaders.

Taking to X, Malviya said, "Part-2 of the thread details out the network George Soros funded 'Access Now' has built in India. Notification received (from Apple) by the usual suspects in Opposition ranks also refers to Access Now. Only if you believe in fairy tales, would you think it is all a coincidence."



Earlier on Tuesday, several opposition leaders of different political parties including Shashi Tharoor, Raghav Chadha, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Asaduddin Owaisi and others alleged that their Apple devices have been the victim of alleged hacking.

The leaders shared the purported screenshots of the warning received on their Apple devices.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who is facing 'cash for query' allegations and has been summoned by the Lok Sabha Ethics Panel, too, received the warning message from Apple.

Meanwhile, Apple on Tuesday, officially announced that it 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," Apple said in a statement.

The tech giant further said that they are unable to provide information about what causes them to issue threat notifications, as that may help state-sponsored attackers adapt their behaviour to evade detection in the future.

Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said the government has asked Apple to join the investigation with "accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks".

"The Government of Bharat takes its role of protecting the privacy and security of all citizens very seriously and will investigate to get to the bottom of these notifications. In light of such information and widespread speculation, we have also asked Apple to join the investigation with real, accurate information on the alleged state-sponsored attacks," Vaishnaw posted on X.