Typically, hackers install ransomware on a targeted machine with the help of a malware. But some Australian users have found that a hacker has used the ‘Find My iPhone‘ feature to lock down their iPhone, iPad devices and Mac machines all at once.
The hacker in this case is someone who goes by the name ‘Oleg Pliss.’ When a given user is targeted, he/she finds that all his/her Apple machines and devices have been locked all at once with a message on the screen reading, “Device hacked by Oleg Pliss. For unlock device” followed by an ‘OK’ button.
Once the hacker locks down the devices, he then asks the victim to pay up $50 to $100 to an anonymous PayPal account. It is clear that the hacker in question is somehow exploiting the ‘Find My iPhone’ feature to lock down devices and machines. Some security analysts have predicted that the hacker probably has access to the iCloud accounts of the users who have been targeted so far.
For users who had a passcode set on their devices, it was easy to regain access. Typically, Find My iPhone can be used to set up a passcode only when a device previously doesn’t have one. So in cases where the users don’t set any passcode, the hacker successfully creates new passcode and locked them out.
Those who have lost access to their iOS devices or Mac machines as a result of this hack need to contact Apple. There is no other way of going about it since it is very probably an iCloud-related problem. Apple may help you regain access to your iCloud account and your Apple ID.
Source: Apple
[ttjad keyword=”apple-tv”]
