Over 300 million Apple email accounts are said to be in the hands of a group of hackers claiming that if Apple is not willing to pay a ransom payment by at least April 7th, they will wipe all the user data from those accounts.
The group, which goes by the name, Turkish Crime Family, is demanding that the money ($75,000) is paid in Bitcoin and/or Ethereum, two forms of online currency which are popular right now. According to MotherBoard’s Joseph Cox, the “family” is also willing to settle on $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards.
To prove the legitimacy of their claims, the group managed to provide a video, email screenshots and also an email address to the Apple security team. However, representatives from Apple have declined to pay for whatsoever and have threatened to hand over all the information provided to the authorities.
The video sent out by the group (also released on YouTube) shows someone is scrolling through numerous stolen iCloud accounts. This seems to be the only proof that the group has access to these iCloud accounts.
At the same time, the group has created a new Twitter handle which is being used to continue with their threats. The group also managed to make itself accessible to the media by sending out an email address on the same Twitter handle.
However, some loopholes can be seen in their story. According to reports, one of the group’s members mentioned that the number of iCloud accounts in their control are 300 million, but another representative of the group claimed the total number of compromised accounts are 559 million. Moreover, according to their tweet, the number of iCloud accounts is 200 million, clearly showing something is fishy or miscommunication within the group.
200 Million iCloud accounts will be factory reset on April 7 2017
— Turkish Crime Family (@turkcrimefamily) March 21, 2017
This is not the first time when iCloud accounts have been in danger. In 2014, hackers stole a trove of personal photos and videos of some of the top Hollywood celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and Scarlett Johansson, etc. Also, last week, hackers came back with their usual tricks and leaked personal photos of Amanda Seyfried, Emma Watson, WWE Diva Paige, Maria Kanellis, Melina Perez, Kaitlyn and Summer Rae.
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