Aussie Apple users held to ransom by hacker
Pic: AP
Apple users in Australia have reportedly been targeted by a hacker who is now demanding money to unlock their devices.
According to the Daily Mail, iPads, iPhones and computers have been hijacked in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, with users awoken in the early hours by an alert warning them of the hacking.
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The sophisticated hacker, known as Oleg Pliss, gained access to the devices and locked them, and is reported to be demanding US $100 to allow users to access their own machines.
Since the messages began to appear, many have complained of a lack of help from their telecommunications providers and Apple. It is thought the hackers may have gained access via iCloud accounts.
IT security expert Troy Hunt told Fairfax that the problem could be with people using the same password across multiple devices.
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"Regardless of how difficult someone believes a password is to guess, if it's been compromised in another service and exposed in an unencrypted fashion, then it puts every other service where it has been reused at risk," he explained.
"Of course it also suggests that two-factor authentication was likely not used as the password alone wouldn't have granted the attacker access to the iCloud account."
What do you think? Will more and more hackers target Apple products, given their popularity? Leave your comments below...
