- Apr 24, 2013
- 1,200
According to MacRumors, it would appear that hackers have started remotely locking Mac and iPhone devices using iCloud's "Find My iPhone" feature, demanding ransom payments.
Several Mac users have reported this week, via their Twitter accounts, that their Macs have been locked out and all they see it's the lock screen with a message asking them to pay a certain amount of money in Bitcoin if they want to receive the code to unlock the device.
How did this happen? Well, blame it on the Equifax hack or another recent data breach that exposed the passwords and email addresses of millions of users. And now, those who got their hands on these credentials can sign into your iCloud account to remotely lock your Mac or iPhone using Find My iPhone.
The bad thing about all this is that it doesn't matter if you have two-factor authentication enabled or not, because the hackers simply click on the "Find My iPhone" functionality that's available on the iCloud.com website to remotely lock the device, bypassing two-factor authentication.
Read more: Hackers Can Remotely Lock Your Mac or iPhone, Change Your Passwords Now
Several Mac users have reported this week, via their Twitter accounts, that their Macs have been locked out and all they see it's the lock screen with a message asking them to pay a certain amount of money in Bitcoin if they want to receive the code to unlock the device.
How did this happen? Well, blame it on the Equifax hack or another recent data breach that exposed the passwords and email addresses of millions of users. And now, those who got their hands on these credentials can sign into your iCloud account to remotely lock your Mac or iPhone using Find My iPhone.
The bad thing about all this is that it doesn't matter if you have two-factor authentication enabled or not, because the hackers simply click on the "Find My iPhone" functionality that's available on the iCloud.com website to remotely lock the device, bypassing two-factor authentication.
Read more: Hackers Can Remotely Lock Your Mac or iPhone, Change Your Passwords Now
