Next up:
Remember, you were warned.
Posted on 03/22/2017 12:17:49 PM PDT by Swordmaker
“A hacker or group of hackers is apparently trying to extort Apple over alleged access to a large cache of iCloud and other Apple email accounts,” Joseph Cox reports for Motherboard. “The hackers, who identified themselves as ‘Turkish Crime Family’, demanded $75,000 in Bitcoin or Ethereum, another increasingly popular crypto-currency, or $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards in exchange for deleting the alleged cache of data.”
“The hackers provided screenshots of alleged emails between the group and members of Apple’s security team. One also gave Motherboard access to an email account allegedly used to communicate with Apple,” Cox reports. “‘Are you willing to share a sample of the data set?’ an unnamed member of Apple’s security team wrote to the hackers a week ago, according to one of the emails stored in the account.”
“Now, the hackers are threatening to reset a number of the iCloud accounts and remotely wipe victim’s Apple devices on April 7, unless Apple pays the requested amount,” Cox reports. “According to one of the emails in the accessed account, the hackers claim to have access to over 300 million Apple email accounts, including those use @icloud and @me domains. However, the hackers appear to be inconsistent in their story; one of the hackers then claimed they had 559 million accounts in all.”
Read more in the full article here.
“‘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],” Hyacinth Mascarenhas reports for International Business Times. “To prove their claims, members of the hacking group reportedly provided Motherboard with screenshots of alleged emails between the group and Apple’s security team and access to an email account reportedly used to communicate with the Cupertino company.”
“The group is also said to have given the site a video, uploaded to YouTube, allegedly showing them browsing through a number of stolen iCloud accounts,” Mascarenhas reports. “According to the emails allegedly exchanged between Turkish Crime Family and Apple, a member of the company’s security team asked them to take down the YouTube video ‘as it’s seeking unwanted attention’ and said they ‘do not reward cyber criminals for breaking the law.’ The team member also warned that archived communications with the group would be sent to the authorities.”
“Members of the group were also reportedly inconsistent about their claim with one of the hackers claiming they had 559 million accounts,” Mascarenhas reports. “The Turkish Crime Family Twitter account, however, claims 200 million iCloud accounts will be affected in the April cyberattack.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If true, somebody should tell these jokers that crime doesn’t pay*.
However, on the off chance that these hackers have gotten a hold of an administrator's passcode and downloaded these data, it would probably be a good idea to change your AppleID passcode before the April 7 deadline to protect your data. Apple will most likely be changing its access protocols and passcodes as well to assure no further breeches if any have occurred in the past.
Again, I doubt such a download of such a large amount of data has occurred as it would have raised large red flags for system admins at Apple and been stopped in its tracks, but it is better to be safe than sorry.
Yet another of the many reasons Im thankful to be an Android user...
That would explain why my Apple devices wanted me to sign in this morning.
...says the guy whose device could be breached by simply entering a very long user ID.
Next up:
Remember, you were warned.
Such a small amount seems like a teenager’s demand to me.
Turkish Crime Family? I mean really?......................
Watch and see if these “hackers” aren’t found to be a bunch of wankers down in their parents basement watching porn and eating pizza.
Dear Mr Cook:
May I remind you that the Founding Fathers added a clause to the Constitution intended to permit businesses to handle such people in a rather dynamic and effective manner which your company can most certainly afford to - and cannot afford not to. Direct your lawyers to look into the “Letters of Marque”.
Sincerely,
A Loyal Customer
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Im even more if a minority. I love my blackberry with a real keyboard and will keep using them until they go out of business
I wouldn’t bet the farm that existing controls would pick up the breech.
The $75k is interesting, such a small sum. Or is it a test?
If my wife’s iPad blanks out and she can’t play her Candy A$$ or whatever her latest game is we’ll have to talk more.
Apple must pay the $$$!!!!
Oh, yes, Android with over 6 million malware in the wild, the majority of Android devices not even capable of being updated, with most running older vulnerable versions of Android, and major manufacturers actually shipping devices with malware built in. Right.
Riiiight. Just like Ashley Madison was going to release my name....I’ never even heard of them until the breech. They still threaten me.
They used to hang horse thieves; hackers deserve no less.
What is that from?
“...demanded $75,000”
Idiots. Ask for much more.
But, but, but, then they'd have to realize the 2nd Amendment actually meant what it says. . . and includes military weaponry. . . and ships of war. . . and, and, and. . .
Oh, my. . .
Tim Cook should put a bounty on the heads of these hackers instead.
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