Police arrested two Russian hackers who used Find my iPhone to extort

    In Moscow, two hackers were arrested, pricked to use the Find my iPhone function to block other people's iPhones and iPads and extort money.



    In theory, the ability to remotely block and display messages was intended to connect the owner of the gadget with his captor or finder. But, taking control of the Apple ID account, hackers blocked the devices and sent a ransom demand of $ 50-100 under the threat of the deletion of personal data to the owners themselves.

    According to department “K”, hackers used two schemes to seize control of gadgets:

    • Theft of the victim’s Apple ID using phishing pages or hacking mail
    • social engineering: pre-prepared accounts were distributed through online rentals of an Apple ID containing a large amount of acquired media content.

    To regain control of the device, the user had to contact an authorized Apple service center, presenting with an identity card and a receipt from the store confirming the purchase of a phone or tablet, which in some cases was difficult.

    Muscovites born in 1991 and 1998 were detained, one of whom was already convicted earlier. They weren’t active for long - the first signals came in the spring. The news received an international response - apparently, the hackers were not limited only to the Russian owners of accounts (Russian users with accounts with free content and you really won’t be tempted) - Reuters writes that complaints came even from Australia.

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