It looks like the CIA isn’t the only organization capable of taking over your phone.
Hackers claiming to have compromised at least 300 million Apple account ID’s and passwords say they will initiate a complete wipe of iPhones and iClouds if the Cupertino, California based technology company doesn’t pay them a ransom.
The group, which goes by the name Turkish Crime Family, says Apple has until April 7th to come up with either $75,000 in BitCoin or $100,000 in iTunes gift cards.
According to Motherboard, the group posted a Youtube video proving they have compromised the credentials of millions of iCloud accounts, which could then be used to wipe an iPhone remotely and potentially locked users out of critical phone features.
The hacker appears to access an elderly woman’s iCloud account, which includes backed-up photos, and the ability to remotely wipe the device.
“We firstly kindly request you to remove the video that you have uploaded on your YouTube channel as it’s seeking unwanted attention, second of all we would like you to know that we do not reward cyber criminals for breaking the law,” a message allegedly from a member of Apple’s security team reads. (Motherboard only saw a screenshot of this message, and not the original).
…
According to one of the emails in the accessed account, the hackers claim to have access to over 300 million Apple email accounts, including those use @icloud and @me domains. However, the hackers appear to be inconsistent in their story; one of the hackers then claimed they had 559 million accounts in all. The hackers did not provide Motherboard with any of the supposedly stolen iCloud accounts to verify this claim, except those shown in the video.
As of this writing it appears that Apple is refusing to pay any ransom.
But the hacking team says refusal to do so will lead to serious consequences for tens of millions of iPhone users and the date is rapidly approaching.
Posting directly to their Twitter page, the Turkish Crime Family warns April 7th will be Apple’s digital doomsday:
200 Million iCloud accounts will be factory reset on April 7 2017
— Turkish Crime Family (@turkcrimefamily) March 21, 2017
Hackread.com notes that the hackers’ story is inconsistent and it’s possible that this is nothing more than a baseless shakedown:
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.
Apple has not yet confirmed the hack and his remained quiet about its potential implications.
But as tech site BGR notes, there is an easy solution iPhone and iCloud users can implement right now to stop any potential attacks on their devices dead in its tracks:
On the off-chance that the hackers are indeed holding access to millions of iCloud accounts, you might consider changing your password to protect your Apple ID
Better safe than sorry. If you utilize Apple devices change your password immediately, just in case.
Related:
Hackers Take A Million Homes Offline in Attack: “Internet, Telephone, TV Outage”
Hackers Force “Bank ATMs to Spew Cash”: Grid Vulnerabilities System-wide
Alert: Your Cell Phone is Spying on You! 4 Ways to Block Your Cell Phone and Prevent Being Monitored
Trump is right. He was spied on, illegally. Dr. Dave Janda reports that Gen. McInerney and Adm. Lyons have told him that Clapper and Brennan were using an illegal and unconstitutional spy program called the “Hammer” to spy on Trump and others for Obama. Clapper has lied under oath before. And Brennan is a Muslim convert.
“47 hard drives and over 600 million pages of information reveal massive spying program targeting judges and prominent Americans”
BOMBSHELL: CIA Whistleblower Leaked Proof Trump Under “Systematic Illegal” Surveillance Over Two Years Ago: FBI Sat On It
“Montgomery went to attorney and FreedomWatch founder Larry Klayman – who then approached the FBI:
Under grants of immunity, which I obtained through Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Curtis, Montgomery produced the hard drives and later was interviewed under oath in a secure room at the FBI Field Office in the District of Columbia.
There he laid out how persons like then-businessman Donald Trump were illegally spied upon by Clapper, Brennan, and the spy agencies of the Obama administration.
Montgomery left the NSA and CIA with 47 hard drives and over 600 million pages of information, much of which is classified, and sought to come forward legally as a whistleblower to appropriate government entities, including congressional intelligence committees, to expose that the spy agencies were engaged for years in systematic illegal surveillance on prominent Americans, including the chief justice of the Supreme Court, other justices, 156 judges, prominent businessmen such as Donald Trump, and even yours truly.
Working side by side with Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence (DIA), James Clapper, and Obama’s former Director of the CIA, John Brennan, Montgomery witnessed “up close and personal” this “Orwellian Big Brother” intrusion on privacy, likely for potential coercion, blackmail or other nefarious purposes.
He even claimed that these spy agencies had manipulated voting in Florida during the 2008 presidential election, which illegal tampering resulted in helping Obama to win the White House.”
ht tp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-22/bombshell-cia-whistleblower-leaked-proof-trump-under-systematic-illegal-government-s
Direct link…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-22/bombshell-cia-whistleblower-leaked-proof-trump-under-systematic-illegal-government-s
Suddenly, on April 8th, millions of children came downstairs and actually talked to their parents for more than five minutes.
Motorist and highway accidents decreased significantly.
All over the world, you could hear people striking up casual conversations while waiting in various lines.
Once again the parks filled up with children, laughing and running about. Even the parents left their benches to join in the fun.
“…what wonderful world——“
Can I hear an ‘Amen!’ The world would be better off without these gadgets. Unfortunately this story sounds like more fear mongering and fake news.
What a blessing it would be. An even better one if it could take out my antique flip phone that my kids make fun of.
PO’d Patriot, unfortunately I have iPhone that my company forced on me some years ago. I miss my ‘dumb’ phone. Oh well, what ever happens just happens. But I would also welcome whatever benefits such an event would bring.
I don’t have a smart phone and never will. I have a cheap trac phone….but i just had to get a new one cuz my battery died on the old one….and now i can’t text cuz the phone makes up the word for me…so i have to look on the booklet and see how to turn that off. My old phone made it easy to turn off, but i see no way here. I don’t like complicated. I am older in my 60’s.
Ahhhhhh yes…. My childhood….
Dumb story about incompetent punks trying to scam Apple or; Apple is about to mess with people the censors or NSA/CIA or whoever, wants to be taken off the web. Perhaps some Posters are pissing off somebody. Oh well.
__
Him
“Trump is right. He was spied on, illegally.”
According to Snowden everything is being recorded and what they look at is selective. There are 320 million people in the US but they wouldn’t select Trump for scrutiny; GTFOOH. The defense of the system is that they can find no proof that President Trump had a wire tap authorization. They can’t find legal proof for an illegal activity; no kidding.
I will take Trump over Hilliary any day, BUT, T Rump is a whiny hypocrite. He was all for the CIA spying on us lowly peasants and calls for the execution of Snowden for outing their tactics. Now he is crying about someone spying on him. That is rich.
Huge terror attack in London including on Parliament. Well beyond time to ban Muslims having driver licences. Just not wise when the threat of vehicle attacks on civilians.
Let me guess, another contribution by Muslims?
Looks like it: Turkey also threatening to do more such attacks on Europeans. Now time to kick Turkey out of NATO and to bomb them if they keep up the attacks. Time to listen to the President and put a stop to Muslim migration and border crossing until ‘we know what the hell is going on”.
The bleeding heart libtards will screw us all,, bet to make local plans to combat a global problem,
Uhhh, since when does not having a license stop anyone from driving?
As usual, every one of these ‘attacks’, talking about the UK thing that was brought up, warrants more restraints on the people that didn’t do it. They want to take cars away from everyone anyway. This will also help to push a national/international I.D. card so not just anyone can get behind the wheel of anything. Then it may become a felony to sell gas for said vehicles to anyone if they don’t have the proper identification. Soon it will also be that you can’t provide air for their tires either. Maybe they should just make cars that run on bacon grease. Yeah, then bicycles will need to be registered and taxed. O.k., I’m stopping now. But they never do.
And this phone thing can most likely be traced back to those Nigerian princes. They just threw everyone off by saying they were ‘Turkish Crime Family”. Or this could somehow be linked to that other guy that has been blamed for everything bad that has happened in the world since 1920. And even things that happened before he was born. He just can’t put his real name to this because you would know who he was right away. So abbreviated they would be TCF.
Gosh! There goes that zaney old religion of peace again!
I tunes gift cards really and you think your going to use them with tracking bots get real.
I haven’t trusted motherboard for a while.
There’s something very fishy about this maybe
Some kind of a false flag?
It’s actually something to look into now that
think about it more.
My guess it is the CIA Bush klan! February 23, 2016 Apple’s Little Secret: There Is Already A Backdoor Installed On Your iPhone
A leaked White House memo reveals that the NSA already have a tool that allows them to bypass security on iPhone devices and access private user data.
http://yournewswire.com/apples-little-secret-there-is-already-a-backdoor-installed-on-your-iphone/
and their only asking for $100K. This is Fake News.
I don’t believe it. If you had that kind of power wouldn’t ask for much more? Doesn’t pass the “sniff” test.
The news is real… though the hack may be fake.
How about a fund drive to beat 100 thou,pay em a bit more then they are asking if they will pull the apple plug now?
It’s like a Dr. Evil demand. “Why demand Millions when we could demand iTunes gift cards?”
My phone has a dial that you stick your index finger in. I keep it because it’s a party line and I hope to meet some cool party gals on it one day.
What’s a “cell” phone?
I asked my 10yr old grandson back in 2002 to make a call from the church house basement. It was an old rotary black desk phone from thousands of yrs ago.
He took one look at it, pondered a few seconds, then looked at me and said, “I don’t think I know how to use this Grand.”
🙂 too funny
I have no destructive inclinations, per se. I am grateful for conveniences, but, yet again, admonish people to function more independently.
If that means that some IT hobbyist creates an intranet, or you just barter via word of mouth. Whatever that means, to you.
In spite of what good it can do, Apple is not a sacred cow.
Telegrams and Pony Express.
These guys are SO good that I just found out they hacked the tin can/string “phone” connection I have to my neighbor across my back yard!
Sorry… but isn’t the Turkish Crime Family all those millions of Muslims looting, pillaging, raping and living off billions from the European countries right now?
Like many of us – I say, “do it”. Wipe the idiot toys. Man once carved in stone and thousands of years, we can still read those. Worked in bronze, iron, other metals and wood and bone …. and the signs and symbols can still be read. Paper came and if taken care of can last 500 years. Tape……. what? 10-20 years or so? Hard drives?…. how long people? 5-10 years reliably? Less? More?…. and flash drives, memory cards the entire digital realm?….. Folks it is all a matter of time anyway before all our b.s. we think is soooooo important is nothing but electrons diffused into the heaven (or hell) of the lost. Yeah, ‘do it’ and we all may just learn a lesson we need to learn.
DAVE HODGES AGAIN? HO HUM, I’M GOING BACK TO SLEEP!
This is a bad thing?
Man , I hope Apple calls their bluff , and it turns out to be a full house
Take em down , can’t wait to see the phone addled public run off the rails
It will be epic
Also , the best part of this .. it fucks the NSA and FBI and CIA
So I’m all for it
Back to two cans and a string and I’d be fine with that
I phone? Personally I use a Yaesu FT-857d and an ICOM IC-7300.
Another fake terror attack today.
Which make believe boogeyman are the Zionists going to blaim this time?
It’s interesting that the U.S. supposedly killed the top Al-Qaeda leader and they haven’t retaliated in any way.
“””Wipe Out 300 Million iPhones On April 7th”””
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha …oh, sorry!! 🙂
Says girl with no iPhone..or cell phone.
NEWS FLASH!!!!!!
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/22/gun-owners-of-america-paul-ryans-obamacare-2-0-still-contains-gun-control/
You already knew.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/22/white-house-trump-admin-strongly-supports-paul-ryans-american-health-care-act/
No cell phone here, either! Stay out of The CLOUD!
Please don’t pay the ransom Please.
A world without cell phone would be like a day with out Government!!!
Sgt.
Sarg:
The word government comes from two words roughly translated they are “guide mind”. Another way of saying “mind control”.
__ ???
__
Say whaaaaaat?
Word Origin and History for government
n.
late 14c., “act of governing or ruling;” 1550s, “system by which a thing is governed” (especially a state), from Old French governement (Modern French gouvernement), from governer (see govern ). Replaced Middle English governance. Meaning “governing power” in a given place is from 1702.
from ht tp://english.stackexchange.com/questions/160026/does-the-etymology-of-the-word-government-mean-to-control-the-mind
I’ve heard some conspiracy theorists say that government, when broken down into its root Latin words, means “to control the mind”.
I’m wondering if this is really true or not. Is it?
answer:—Regarding the -ment suffix, Wiktionary says “from -mentum via Old French -ment”.
-mentum doesn’t support this claim, but -ment might: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ment#French
Only etymology 1 supports this claim. Etymology 2 links back to -mentum. I am unsure whether this morpheme, as used in government, draws from etymology 1 or 2.
It seems to me that both are correct, but not in the sense you (or the conspiracy theorists) are thinking. Evidence suggests that it comes from Latin “mens” meaning “mind” but came to be used as “a general adverbial suffix” (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mens#Latin). Etymologically speaking, it might help to frame it as “a group that is of a mind/disposition to govern/lead” rather than “a group that controls minds”. – Brian Lacy Mar 26 ’14 at 22:13
If “-ment” always referred to the mind, then a replacement would be a brain transplant, punishment would be a headache, and an attachment would be a neural implant. – tobyink Mar 26 ’14 at 23:08
I think I agree with tobyink ^
Cool, ill just throw it away and never look back
How about this for a quick “fuck you and die” change the passwords to all your accounts on April 6 you daft cunts
What a POS story.
The most important thing that you
could have include: How to change
your password in that maze called Apple.
You neglected to include….
IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOU PASSWORD GO HERE:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201355
“The group, which goes by the name Turkish Crime Family, says Apple has until April 7th to come up with either $75,000 in BitCoin or $100,000 in iTunes gift cards.”
It’s hard to take something seriously with tiny little ransom demands like that when they could just as easily be in the multiple millions.