Some Australian Mac and iPhone owners woke up to their Apple devices being remotely locked through Apple's Find My iPhone service with a message demanding payments for their device to be unlocked.
Users on Apple's support forums have been reporting that the message on their device states that they have been hacked by 'Oleg Pliss' and to send a payment to a PayPal account to get the device unlocked.
i was using my ipad a short while ago when suddenly it locked itself, and was askiwhich I'd never previously set up. I went to check my phone and there was a message on the screen (it's still there) saying that my device(s) had been hacked by 'Oleg Pliss' and he/she/they demanded $100 USD/EUR (sent by paypal to lock404(at)hotmail.com) to return them to me.We aren't exactly how the devices are being hijacked, but it most likely involves users having their Apple IDs hacked due to weak passwords or a phishing attack -- however all reports of this incident seem to be in Australia. With access to an Apple ID, a hacker could permanently lock you out of your device, see any data stored in iCloud and permanently lock you out of your Apple ID.
To prevent your device from being hijacked, we strongly recommend that you enable two-factor authentication on your Apple ID, update your older, weaker passwords on iCloud and be sure to use a passcode on your iOS device as those devices with a passcode cannot be remotely locked.
via View News via trendax
