A day after Australian and some New Zealander iPhone owners started reporting about a remote iPhone hack, Apple has released an official statement in response to the attacks and in order to calm down users.
In a short statement, Apple maintained that iCloud, which is the lynchpin for most Apple services, and also controls device activation and data wiping, was not compromised. Apple said in a statement on ZDnet, “Apple takes security very seriously and iCloud was not compromised during this incident. Impacted users should change their Apple ID password as soon as possible and avoid using the same user name and password for multiple services. Any users who need additional help can contact AppleCare or visit their local Apple Retail Store.”
Earlier this week, users in Australia took to the official Apple forums to complain about their iPhones being hacked, bricked and held for ransom by a hacker going by the name of Oleg Pliss. The message instructed owners to transfer money to a PayPal account to get their device back, though the PayPal account itself didn’t exist. Users who had two-factor authentication turned on were fortunate enough to avoid this.
It is still unclear how ‘Pliss’ managed to tap in to so many iPhones remotely. One theory goes that the hacker was able to access a separately maintained database of iPhone users where they could see the usernames and passwords. With the recent eBay hacking case, and the major Heartbleed threat, Internet security has come under a lot of scrutiny and this latest hack will no doubt add more speculation as to how reliable online services really are.
