Hackers Threaten to Remotely Wipe iPhones Unless Apple Pays Ransom

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Posted March 22, 2017 at 4:07pm by Shalom Levytam

A group of hackers claims to have compromised millions of iCloud account and is threatening to remotely wipe iPhones unless Apple pays a ransom, reports Motherboard.

The hackers who call themselves 'Turkish Crime Family' are demanding $75,000 in Bitcoin or Ethereum, or $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards. "I just want my money and thought this would be an interesting report that a lot of Apple customers would be interested in reading and hearing," one of the hackers told Motherboard.

Screenshots of alleged messages between the group and Apple's security team were shared with the site, as was access to an email account purportedly used to communicate with Apple.

The emails appear to show Apple asking for evidence of the hack. "Are you willing to share a sample of the data set?"

The hackers also uploaded a video that allegedly shows them logging into stolen accounts including an elderly woman's iCloud account which contained backed-up photos and the ability to remotely wipe her device.

The hackers claim Apple responded to the video saying, "We firstly kindly request you to remove the video that you have uploaded on your YouTube channel as it's seeking unwanted attention, second of all we would like you to know that we do not reward cyber criminals for breaking the law."

Apple reportedly said archived communications with the hacker would be sent to the authorities. Now the group is threatening to reset a number of iCloud accounts and remotely wipe devices on April 7th, unless Apple meets their demand.

In one email the hackers claim they have access to over 300 million accounts but another hacker claimed they had 559 million accounts. Motherboard was not able to verify this claim and they were not provided with access to any stolen accounts.

While hackers have gained access to high profile iCloud accounts in the past, 300 - 559 million breached accounts would seem to demand a much higher ransom.

Apple didn't respond to requests for comment.

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Hackers Threaten to Remotely Wipe iPhones Unless Apple Pays Ransom

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Guest - March 23, 2017 at 11:12pm

No way they have 500 million accounts.. maybe 500 thousand or 50 thousand or even just 5 thousand...they are super amateur and immature to pull this off. I guess we will all see what happens April 7th.

Elderwood - March 22, 2017 at 11:59pm

75,000 bitcoins? children. I wouldn't take this too seriously. if it was a million maybe. if it was a well documented hacking group, maybe.

Guest - March 22, 2017 at 9:24pm

Change your pass asap

RWR - March 22, 2017 at 6:41pm

Turn off find my iPhone/Mac/etc and you'll be fine.

Luciano - March 22, 2017 at 6:18pm

Awesome !! That's why I don't have an iCloud who cares just reload everything for your computer

D4xM4Nx - March 22, 2017 at 4:43pm

Come at me! Worst case scenario I lose my jailbreak or not because I wrote my nonce to the nvram and have an ubuntu distro as dual boot for FutureRestore. Backups are always on my PC. Hahaha

Crock - March 22, 2017 at 4:15pm

This seems unlikely. Right?

stevenlacross - March 22, 2017 at 4:18pm

It's possible, don't put it past hackers to be able to do that, unless you have 2 factor turned on, it's possibly to hack any account, actually even with 2 factor it's still possible. Listen to security now with Steve Gibson and Leo laporte

Crock - March 23, 2017 at 11:47am

Right buddy sure it is. They could easily just take it all just to show Apple then ask for ransom in exchange for the things they took. 75,000... right! Or better yet hack everyone account and just take out a penny or five cents per person and they would have more than their ransom.