The most common form of extortion these days is ransomware, and judging by the number of variants, it's clear the tactic is very effective at putting pressure on users. However, a group of hackers has decided to aim much higher, extorting none other than Apple. They claim to have access to millions of iCloud accounts, and if Cupertino doesn't pay $75,000 before April 7, they will begin remotely wiping devices...
Being a victim of cyber-extortion with ransomware is nothing interesting. Watching your personal files get encrypted is disturbing, and depending on the type of infection, the chances of recovering that data tend to be low. But in recent days, an even worse situation has developed: the possibility of millions of users becoming digital hostages, caught in a dispute between Apple and a group of hackers known as “La Familia Criminal Turca”. If what these hackers say is true, they hold in their possession a large number of iCloud accounts and other Apple emails.
What do they want in exchange for these accounts? $75,000 in cryptocurrencies (apparently preferring Bitcoin and Ethereum), or $100,000 in iTunes gift cards. The hackers exchanged several emails with a security team at Apple, and a YouTube video even appeared that (supposedly) shows one of them logging into an elderly person's iCloud account, with many photos backed up in the cloud, and the option to remotely purge their iPhone. Technically, Apple maintains a bounty program for detecting and reporting bugs in its products, but they have never made a payment to cybercriminals, and they won't start now.
The number of accounts held by the hackers is the most contentious point of the entire report. One of them said they control “more than 300 million”, while another gave a precise number: 559 million. The only “proof” was the aforementioned video (which has already been removed), and all requests for samples ended in silence. The deadline for Apple to meet the demands is April 7. The whole process smells like theater, but we'll be watching.
