It seems hackers have targeted several Mac and iPhone users recently. As per reports, hackers have started locking Mac or iPhone remotely using iCloud’s “Find My iPhone” feature and demanding ransom for giving the new password.
Several users reported the same on Twitter. They confirmed that the Mac has been locked with a lock screen message asking them to pay a certain amount of money in Bitcoin for the code to unlock.
If you are wondering how hackers are doing this, recent data breach and habit of password reuse are the reason. Several emails and passwords have been exposed in recent attacks. Users who use same email/password combination for iCloud are an easy target.
You can also check if your email was compromised. Here is the guide to check if your email/password combination was leaked in any data breach.
Also see: Exploring 30 years of Macbook
Hackers can log in and remotely lock Mac or iPhone using Find My iPhone feature. Even if you have enabled the two-factor authentication, hackers can still do the same just by clicking on the “Find My iPhone”
What to do now?
If you are also using Mac or iPhone, you should think about it seriously. The best thing you can do is the password change. GO and change your Apple ID password. Generate a new hard to guess a password that you do not use on any of your other accounts.You can use password generator tools for hard to guess passwords. Also, don’t forget to enable two-factor authentication.
As I already said so many times, stop reusing email/password combination to avoid any issue. Your accounts can be misused in several ways and your identity can be hijacked. Your security is in your hand. So, think about it seriously.
