It’s been about a week since Workers’ Party chair Sylvia Lim set off a minor firestorm online after she said in Parliament that Apple had alerted her that state-sponsored attackers could hack her iPhone.
It had started with a question from fellow Workers’ Party MP, Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied GRC) on the Government’s use of spyware. Minister of Stte (Home Affairs) Desmond Tan responded to the question.
Ms Lim had followed up with this: “So based on what the Minister of State said just now that reliance of technology is required for national seucirty reasons, can I get his confirmation that I should have absolutely no concern that the Singapore Government agencies are trying to hack into my phone?”
She had prefaced her follow-up question by dropping this rather startling snippet: “Not long ago, I received a threat warning from Apple informing me that it could be that my iPhone has been the subject of hacking by state-sponsored attackers, and they also said it is likely to be so because of who I am individually or what I do.”
That was the spark. The mainstream media followed up. So did the usual online media abd websites such as Yahoo News, Mothership, mustsharenews, Goodyfeed, AsiaOne, Reddit, HardwareZone. And from beyond Singapore shores, established media such as Malay Mail and Borneo Bulletin.
And that wasn’t all. Loads of more obscure websites, pages and blogs carried the story and even followed up on it. Here’s a sampling: theliveupdate, The AU Times, Borneo Bulletin, mycarforum, sgmattersheadtopics, sgtalk, intellasia, Daily Advent, cowdycactus, pisev, Malaysia’s Malay Mail, Colors of India and newslookout.
Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam was quick to respond, denying that there had been any such involvement by government agencies. He also questioned why Ms Lim had made the decision to make this issue public.
That did not quash interest in issue. Far from it. Mr Tan advised Ms Lim to make a police report if she had concerns about what had happened to her iPhone.
Responding to her statement, Mr Shanmugam asked to see the precise notification from Apple, whether it was a general one sent to several people or a specific notification sent to her.
“And if it was a specific notification to Ms Lim’s phone, MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) would be very interested because I’m particularly with a state-sponsored agency… this is something we are extremely concerned about,” said Mr Shanmugam.
“She is a member of Parliament. All members of Parliament are potential targets, and we would like to know, and we would like to get to the bottom of it as to who was trying to get into her phone,” he added.
Mr Shanmugam also said that he quickly checked with the Defence Ministry’s Security and Intelligence Division and confirmed that Singapore state agencies did not hack into Ms Lim’s phone.
The Singapore Police Force then advised Ms Lim to file a police report on the incident, or she could hand over her phone for forensic examination by a commercial organisation with expertise in the field.
“The police had also told her that police will put in place a secure, auditable and transparent process for the commercial organisation to handle and examine her phone,” said SPF in a statement on Thursday (Feb 24).
Ms Lim confimred that she had met the police on Wednesday (Feb 23) following their request for further investigation into the incident and was satisfied with the response of Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam on the matter.
After her latest meeting with the police, Ms Lim said she was satisfied with Mr Shanmugam’s response to her claim in Parliament.
“She did not wish to pursue the matter further. Accordingly, she did not file a police report, nor did she require any forensic examination of her phone,” said SPF. “As such, the police will treat the matter as closed.”
But whether netizens will let this tasty episode rest remains to be seen./TISG