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Apple devices hacked by ‘Oleg Pliss’ and held for ransom

Hackers can digitally hijack your iPhone and hold it for ransom

Hey, remember when Apple promised that their products were ‘unhackable’? Well, they were wrong.

iPhone and iPad owners in Australia were in for a real shock when they woke to a strange sound coming from their devices Tuesday morning. According to The Huffington Post, the sound was not an alarm, but rather an alert informing them that their device had been hacked and locked.

A message appeared on the screen, stating that their Apple device has been “hacked by Oleg Pliss” with a message demanding between $50 and $100 to unlock it.

Many who were affected by the hack took to Twitter to voice their concerns.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Apple customers reported problems in Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria. It is unclear as to how many have people have had their devices hacked but reports from ITWire said that users as far as New Zealand have been hit.

The alleged cause of the attack was the hacking and exploitation of a feature called “Find My iPhone,” which allows users to remotely lock their devices via iCloud.

Apparently, users who have assigned a passcode to their iPhone or iPad have figured out that they could claim back control of their devices by restoring them from a backup by connecting to iTunes, ZDNet reports.

However, those who did not set up passcodes are struggling because that allowed the hacker to create one for them, locking them out of their device.

Though Apple has yet to comment on the situation, a thread from an online support forum offers advice for those affected by the hack.

So if you haven’t done so already, assign passcodes to your Apple devices now. You should also consider changing your iCloud password and following Apple’s two-step verification process.