A group of Turkish hackers calling themselves the “Turkish Crime Family” have reportedly threatened to wipe out millions of Apple iCloud accounts. The hackers claims to have access to over 300 million Apple email accounts and are demanding $750,000 (£601,800) in extortion money. They are giving Apple until April 7 to pay up in either Bitcoins or Ethereum. Additionally, the hackers will accept $100,000 in iTunes gift cards if all else fails. Per Yahoo!… “I just want my money and thought this would be an interesting report that a lot of Apple customers would be interested in reading and hearing,” one of the hackers told the site. To prove their claims, members of the hacking group reportedly provided Motherboard with screenshots of alleged emails between the group and Apple’s security team and access to an email account reportedly used to communicate with the Cupertino company. The group is also said to have given the site a video, uploaded to YouTube, allegedly showing them browsing through a number of stolen iCloud accounts. According to the emails allegedly exchanged between Turkish Crime Family and Apple, a member of the company’s security team asked them to take down the YouTube video “as it’s seeking unwanted attention” and said they “do not reward cyber criminals for breaking the law”. The team member also warned that archived communications with the group would be sent to the authorities. However, the hacker group did not provide any proof of the cache’s existence or explain how they gained access to the stolen accounts, which allegedly includes iCloud and @me domains as well. Apple declined Motherboard’s request for comment. Members of the group were also reportedly inconsistent about their claim with one of the hackers claiming they had 559 million accounts. The Turkish Crime Family Twitter account, however, claims 200 million iCloud accounts will be affected in the April cyberattack. “We are a new organization,” the group wrote from a newly created Twitter account under the handle @turkcrimefamily. “The 7 April 2017 attack isn’t going to be our only one. This is just the start.” Read more HERE.
