Mahua Moitra writes to Lok Sabha Speaker on attacks on iPhones, seeks protection

New Delhi: TMC MP Mahua Moitra on Wednesday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla flagging alerts received by several opposition leaders about “state-sponsored” attacks on their iPhones, and urged him to provide them protection to continue doing their duties.

This “illegal surveillance by the government” is the worst attack on fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, the Krishnanagar MP said.

Prataprao Jadhav, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, told PTI that the panel would act on the issue if anyone flags the matter to it.

On Tuesday, several opposition leaders including Moitra, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, AAP’s Raghav Chadha, Congress’ Shashi Tharoor and his party’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera, and CPI(M) general Sitaram Yechury claimed to have received alerts from Apple about “state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their iPhones.

They posted purported screenshots of the message on their X handles.

In her letter to Birla, Moitra said opposition leaders received a message that they were “being targeted by state-sponsored attackers” who were attempting to remotely compromise the devices and access their data, communications and “even the camera and microphone”.

“This threat is doubly shocking in light of the Pegasus software (sold only to governments) that was used to compromise the devices of various members of the opposition, dissenting journalists and members of civil society during 2019-2021.