Apple has denied the claims by hackers who said they are in possession of 600 million iCloud accounts. In a statement to Fortune, the iPhone maker made it clear that there is no breach in the system. The hackers claimed that they are holding all the accounts and are capable of deleting data, photos, messages and videos from millions of iPhones.
Apple denies any fault on its side
Hackers are reportedly deploying a cache of the stolen email accounts and passwords in order to extract a ransom from Apple. These hackers are claiming that they have control over 559 million email and iCloud accounts, reported Motherboard on Tuesday.
The group of hackers calling itself the Turkish Crime Family said that it would hand back the list of compromised accounts and delete the list only after Apple pays $75,000 in bitcoin or ethereum or $100,000 in iTunes gift cards, according to Motherboard. As of now, the hacker group has set a deadline of April 7. Apple, however, has denied that any hacker group is in possession of any such data.
“There have not been any breaches in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud and Apple ID,” the company said.
In a statement to Fortune, the company said that even if the hackers are in possession of such information, it is not through a hack. The company tried to clear its name, saying the information might have been obtained through hacked third-party services (hinting at Yahoo).
Can the hackers be believed?
Further, the spokesperson made it clear that the company is keeping a close watch on unauthorized access to user accounts and is working in close collaboration with law enforcement to catch the criminals. However, the iPhone maker refrained from giving any clarity on what steps are being taken to monitor the situation.
Not just Apple but others are also taking the threat by the hackers with a grain of salt. Many believe that the false claims are being made to extract money from the company. The hackers were inconsistent with the number of accounts they are in control of. Further, these alleged hackers did not give even one account detail to Motherboard.
Nevertheless, as a precaution, iCloud users with their ID and password details on Yahoo should change their passwords immediately. Apple also advises users to use different passwords for different websites and use two-factor authentication.
