Hackers hold Apple to ransom by threatening to wipe 200 million iCloud accounts

The hackers have identified themselves as ‘Turkish Crime Family’.

A hacker or group of hackers is threatening to wipe up to 200 million iCloud and other Apple email accounts unless paid a hefty ransom by Apple. According to Motherboard, hackers identifying themselves as ‘Turkish Crime Family’ have threatened to wipe the accounts unless they receive $75,000 worth of the crypto-currencies Bitcoin or Ethereum or $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards. The hackers provided Motherboard with evidence of communication between themselves and Apple’s security team, including screenshots of alleged emails and a YouTube video of them seemingly logging into some of the accounts they are threatening to wipe. A screenshot of email communication (not the actual mail itself) between Apple’s security team and the hackers, provided to Motherboard, read: "We firstly kindly request you to remove the video that you have uploaded on your YouTube channel as it's seeking unwanted attention, second of all we would like you to know that we do not reward cyber criminals for breaking the law. Motherboard claim that there were inconsistencies in some of the claims made by the hackers, including the number of accounts they had access to, and that the hackers have threatened to wipe the accounts by April 7 if Apple don’t answer their ransom demands.