On Tuesday, hackers allegedly accessed as many as 559 million Apple emails on iCloud and me.com domains. The group further plans a massive wipe-out of iPhone data such as photos, videos, and even private messages. Read on to find out how to protect your files from an imminent privacy breach.
According to Forbes, the online terrorists call themselves the "Turkish Crime Family". Reportedly, they are demanding $75,000 in bitcoin from Apple or $100,000 in iTunes gift cards. The hackers gave the valuable company until April 7 to make the deal.
Using the cached usernames and passwords, the Turkish Crime Family will reset a lot of iPhone devices if the tech firm does not comply with their demands. While the company has not confirmed the authenticity of the scoop, an unidentified spokesperson told Fortune that the data may have come from stolen LinkedIn accounts.
Nevertheless, prevention is always better than cure. Whether the hacking is true or not, protect the contents of your devices at all times. For one thing, you can change your password to a "high-entropy" one. It technically includes random numbers, upper and lower-case letters, and special characters.
Also, do note that you should not have the same answer for every security question. If the online terrorists really managed to breach into your account, then they would have your security answers by now. The only way to combat this incident is to make sure your answers differ slightly from site to site.
Lastly, activate two-factor authentication with a safe mobile number. This requires you to enter a code texted to your handset whenever you want to log in. Meanwhile, high-value targets could choose a number separate from their main mobile numbers, which is preferably a Google Voice number. Hackers cannot easily take this information without your official consent.
