Several Opposition leaders and journalists on Tuesday reported receiving notifications from Apple alerting them that their iPhones might have been targeted by “state-sponsored attackers” — in an echo of the Pegasus snooping scandal that erupted in 2021.

“These attackers are likely targeting you individually because of who you are or what you do. If your device is compromised by a state-sponsored attacker, they may be able to remotely access your sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone. While it’s possible this is a false alarm, please take this warning seriously,” the alert said.

Mahua Moitra, the Trinamul Congress MP who for long has been asking questions of the Adani group, shared on social media the alerts she had received and wrote: “Received text & email from Apple warning me Govt trying to hack into my phone & email. @HMOIndia — get a life. Adani & PMO bullies — your fear makes me pity you.”

Moitra has been summoned by a parliamentary committee to answer allegations that the questions she asked about Adani were in return for cash. She denies the allegations, which have been made by a BJP MP and a Supreme Court lawyer whom she describes as a “jilted ex-boyfriend”.

Politicians who reported receiving the notification include CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, whose son Priyank shared the alert, several members in Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s office, Congress spokespersons Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate, party MPs Shashi Tharoor and K.C. Venugopal, Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister T.S. Singhdeo, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, AAP leader Raghav Chadha and Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.

The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan, Deccan Chronicle’s resident editor in Hyderabad Sriram Karri, another city-based journalist Revathi Pogadadanda, and Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project’s Anand Mangnale and Ravi Nair also received the alerts. OCCRP had recently published an investigation on alleged stock market manipulation by the Adani group. Assembly elections will be held in Telangana this month.

Yechury wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi attaching the alert he had received and said: “This constitutes a gross violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India to all its citizens. A surveillance state is the antithesis of democracy.”

The CPM leader wrote to Modi that any attempt to remotely access his devices could only mean that “the intention is to remotely plant some information on my devices and then to incriminate me on the basis of such planted fabricated material. Given the gross misuse of central agencies by this government headed by you, such a possibility is very real”.

Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted in Hindi: “Modiji, if you have to order surveillance, do it on the country’s borders... you have not been chosen for surveillance of our mobile phones.”

The targets started receiving these notifications from late Monday night. An Apple source explained that since it enabled threat notifications in 2021, such messages have been sent to users in 150 countries.

In 2021, Israeli spyware Pegasus — sold only to governments — was reported to have been used to snoop on Opposition politicians, journalists, activists and even a judge in India.

Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw tweeted that the matter would be investigated, but later appeared to make light of it.

Founding director of the Internet Freedom Foundation Apar Gupta tweeted: “Firstly, reports indicate that India has been a ground for deploying Pegasus spyware by NSO Group, an Israeli firm. In October 2019, state attackers targeted activists, and in July 2021 they extended their reach to public officials and journalists. The Union Government has not clearly denied these activities in the Supreme Court of India. Moreover, investigations by Amnesty, Citizen Lab, and notifications from WhatsApp corroborate its use, suggesting a pattern in India and a matching victim profile.

“Secondly, Access Now and Citizen Lab last month have confirmed the validity of Apple’s threat notifications sent to Russian journalists, including Meduza’s publisher. These confirmations lend high credibility to such notifications.

“Thirdly, Financial Times disclosed in March that India is seeking new spyware contracts starting at approximately $16 million and potentially escalating to $120 million in the next few years. These contracts involve companies like the Intellexa Alliance, recently featured in a report called ‘The Predator Files’.

“With imminent state assembly elections and the 2024 general elections not far off, the timing of these threat notifications is alarming. Public cynicism or judicial stupor should not preclude us from demanding an independent, transparent technical analysis and clear disclosures from the Government of India regarding its spyware purchases and deployments.”

In a message to reporters, the Apple source quoted a note on their website on such threats: “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 behavior to evade detection in the future.”

A Congress source told The Telegraph: “Rahul Gandhi’s team is getting a technical security team to look at their devices and suggest what must be done from now on. A lot of us use Android phones which, even if hacked, don’t have the provision of sending notifications. Many leaders are seeking technical help on their own.”

Minister Vaishnaw said on X: “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.”

However, when questioned about the matter by reporters in Bhopal, Vaishnaw said: “There are many compulsive critics in our country. Their only job is to criticise the government as and when they wake up, as and when they find an opportunity.”

Last week, the Centre’s Computer Emergency Response Team flagged “multiple vulnerabilities in Apple products”.

Priyanka Chaturvedi tweeted: “While attacking the Opposition for calling this surveillance, he (Vaishnaw) has stayed silent on why only Opposition voices got this message.”

Cyber expert Nikhil Pahwa explained in a series of tweets: “How does Apple know it’s a state-sponsored attack? Probably because of the activity on the device and the nature of the compromise, it’s an educated guess… You can’t ever conclusively prove WHO has attacked someone with such tools because it is impossible to trace the source.”

He added: “It was the same issue with Pegasus. Lawyers expected that there will be something akin to a murder weapon and technology can find the weapon with fingerprints on it. So they did not push back much against the SC to constituting a ‘technical’ committee, which can never give a deterministic technical outcome.”

Pahwa put the ball back with the Supreme Court: “This, along with electoral bonds, is a key test for the Supreme Court of India. I’m reminded of Justice Ramanna (sic) during the Pegasus case repeatedly saying that the Supreme Court doesn’t want to venture into areas of national security before finally constituting a committee, saying that the state will not get a free pass, before constituting a technical committee. That committee report is still not public and we haven’t heard of that case since.

“The Indian government said then that if they disclose anything related to such tools, then it will empower terrorists. The Supreme Court has an opportunity to ringfence surveillance: not just mass surveillance with CMS, Natgrid and Aadhaar-linked data collection, but also illegal usage cyberweapons against citizens with tools like Pegasus, Netwire and Predator. That is national interest, and whether it will act or not is anybody’s guess.”