‘Thanks to PM Modi…’: Congress MLA KC Venugopal lashes out at Centre after receiving Apple alert over ‘malicious spyware’ | India News

NEW DELHI: Congress MP KC Venugopal on Saturday accused the Center of using “malicious spyware” to try to To hack his phone and said he was made aware of the attempt after receiving a tip from Apple.
Apple had sent a similar alert to Venugopal on October 30, 2023.
A screenshot of the Apple alert that the congressional leader shared on the social media platform read: “This is not a repeat notice – this is to inform you that we have detected another attack on your device.”
Strongly condemning the alleged attempts by the Prime Minister Modi-led government to hack his phone using state sponsored spywareVenugopal said, “Thanks to PM Modi for sending your favorite malware spyware on my phone too! Apple was kind enough to inform me about this special gift from you!”

Venugopal accused the Modi government of acting in a “criminal and unconstitutional manner” by targeting “political opponents and invading their privacy.”
Referring to the recent assembly elections, Venugopal said the people reject any attack on the Constitution and the BJP’s “fascist agenda”. He vowed to “oppose tooth and nail this blatantly unconstitutional act and invasion of our privacy”.
Venugopal’s comments come days after tech giant Apple issued a fresh warning to iPhone users in at least 98 countries, including India, about a potential new attack by mercenary spyware like ‘Pegasus’.
Apple’s warning tells users that “you are the target of a mercenary spyware attack that attempts to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID.” In the warning, the iPhone maker also said that this attack “likely targets you specifically because of who you are or what you do.”
“While it is never possible to achieve absolute certainty when detecting such attacks, Apple has high confidence in this warning – please take it seriously,” the company added.

Repeat of last year?

In October last year, the US-based tech company had sent similar warnings to users in India.
At the time too, several opposition leaders including Shashi Tharoor, Mahua Moitra and Priyanka Chaturvedi had shared posts showing the Apple warning they had received, and accused the Centre of being behind the “state-sponsored” attack.
Rahul Gandhi also said that his office staff had received the warning.
The opposition has accused the Modi government of using surveillance software like Pegasus to monitor its political rivals.
The Centre had then refuted all the allegations, but vowed to investigate the origin of the notifications. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had asked Apple to provide “real and accurate information” about the alleged attacks.