For those of you with Apple devices, you may want
to read this. Recently, a group of attackers identifying themselves as the
‘Turkish Crime Family’ have reportedly come into possession of a large amount
of compromised iPhone and iCloud accounts.
Through these accounts, anyone with the credentials
can locate the devices you may carry, access the stored pictures in iCloud, and
also remotely wipe the device.
The group claims that it has access to
approximately 200-250 million credentials, maybe more, which it says it will
reset unless Apple pays the ransom it is demanding (the amount reported by the
media varies – between $75,000 in cryptocurrency and $1 million in iTunes vouchers).
Currently, Apple does have a bug bounty
program. However, they are not of the ethos to pay attackers holding data
hostage.
A screen capture provided to a news outlet from the
so-called Turkish Crime Family’ shows a message from Apple’s security team
stating that they do not reward cybercriminals for breaking the law.
Other videos and screen captures have shown the attackers
validating the log ins by logging into an account that is part of the
compromised cache of data.
In subsequent screen capture from Apple’s security
team, Apple has stated that archived transcripts of the conversations will be
provided to the appropriate authorities.
So far, a date of April 7th has been
given for the attackers to receive the funds before the resets commence.
The group has also been approaching various media
groups in an attempt to draw attention to the issue, forcing Apple to pay the
ransom that is being demanded.
It is unknown truly if the rumors of mass
compromise of are true, however, this is just another indication to play it
safe in cyberspace and make smart decisions when it comes to securing your
devices.