Hackers from the so-called Turkish Crime Family ring claim to have gotten hold of access creds for a huge number of iCloud accounts.

Apple ID credentials pose an authentication barrier that safeguards users’ sensitive information from being compromised. A recent newsmaking hack incident has put Apple clients in a jeopardy of identity theft. On March 21, hackers claiming to be from a group called the Turkish Crime Family gained instant notoriety as they stated they had passwords for millions of email accounts hosted at icloud.com, mac.com, and me.com domains. The exact number of compromised accounts reportedly ranges from 300 million to more than 600 million.

Hackers threaten to leak Apple customers’ data or wipe devices unless ransom is paid
Hackers threaten to leak Apple customers’ data or wipe devices unless ransom is paid

The cybercrooks purportedly responsible for this massive breach have contacted Apple as well as several media outlets. They threaten to expose the allegedly obtained iCloud creds or start remotely wiping data from users’ devices unless their demands are met. Specifically, the felons have told Apple to cough up a ransom of $75,000 in Bitcoin or Ethereum, the latter being less widespread but increasingly popular cryptocurrency. An alternative payment option is by iTunes gift cards, but in this case the requested amount is the equivalent of $100,000. The ransom is to be submitted by April 7, or else the worst-case scenario ensues.

The criminals have provided some evidence to prove that their story is credible. They uploaded a YouTube video reflecting an instance of logging into a person’s iCloud account, which is followed by accessing backed up pictures and the option to wipe the targeted device.

As of March 22 has denied rumors about the company’s systems having been breached. According to their spokesperson’s statement to Fortune, the list of email addresses and passwords may have been leaked in the course of earlier compromises of third-party services. And yet, out of harm’s way, users are recommended to set up two-factor authentication for their iCloud accounts and preferably change their Apple ID password in light of the purported breach.

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