“A number of iOS device users in the United States and Europe have recently become victim of a scary ransom scam,” Brent Dirks reports for AppAdvice. “Their device is placed into lost mode, and the scammers demand a payment – anywhere from $30 to $50 – to unlock their iPhone or iPad.”
“Hackers first need to acquire a compromised an Apple ID by phishing, social engineering, data breach, or other method,” Dirks reports. “There are a number of outlets online where hackers can purchase compromised Apple IDs.”
Dirks reports, “The best way to protect against this kind of attack is to enable two-factor authentication for your Apple ID.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last year on the occasion of the ‘Fappening’ celebrity nude leaks:
Too many people use one password for multiple services and weak passwords at that. Once hackers guess that password, they then have access to all sorts of things: cloud storage, bank accounts, Facebook, Twitter, email, etc… Social engineering hacks can be thwarted, at least for iCloud. Use two-step verification for Apple ID to keep your personal information as secure as possible. More info here.
Always use unique passwords and use Apple’s Keychain Access and iCloud Keychain to create and manage them. When used properly, it works like a dream.
Intern: Tap that keg!
“Russian” hackers can access iPhone encryption, yet the FBI cannot.
amazin’, simply amazin’.
They didn’t “access iPhone encryption” – did you fail to even read the excerpt here?
no, it was just a knee-jerk fascist Trumpian response.
Parried by your knee-Jerk Socialist totalitarianism (Psst – Hitler was a Socialst: hope that didn’t pop your bubble….)
the hell you say. 🙂
Hitler was not socialist, the name “socialist” in his party meant nothing. Hitler killed socialists.
Hitler was a fascist with racist/nationalist accent, and this is what Nazism is. Fascism is ultimate power of capital.
Thought Hitler was an orange-haired Republican?
Yes, Hitler WAS a socialist. He believed in what was then and now is called National Socialism which was embued with German nationalism as well as many facets of Italian fascism which Hitler and other party leaders found attractive. German National Socialism can be traced back to Fredrick William I (1688-1740) and eveloved from there.
You need to do more research, not what your leftist teachers told you in high school or your progressive freinds all believe.
Adolph Hitler was a fascist and he killed anyone that got in his way as well as what groups considered undesirable in his party’s veiw.
Here’s a link you can explore:https://www.britannica.com/event/National-Socialism
To be sure, Hitler was a very bad man, a killer. The world is built by killers throughout history.
Hitler was also a socilaist….deal with it.
Hate having to teach history – NAZI is an acronym for The National (NA) Socialist (ZI in Deutschland) Workers Party. So yes Nazi’s are Socialists, as are Communists (Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics). The difference between National and Communist Socialism is the concept of how to handle the means of production. Communists believe in ownership of all means of production, National Socialist believe in government control over the means of production, but the fiction of private ownership. The term fascism was coined by Mussolini to describe Corporatism (the Socialist philosophy behind National Socialism). Fascism comes cto on the Roman word fascia (the symbol of the Rome’s power) describes a bundle of sticks tie to together by a ribbon. Musolini chose this symbol because you could easily break a single stick (business, fraternal organizations, etc), but they became I breakable when bundled by the strings of state power. So in analyzing current political positions, the Democratic platform is closer (and in many respects components of the Republican platform too) to National Socialism than pure Republicanism or Communism.
Modern day political systems which directly draw their history from National Socialism include France’s National Front; Greece’s New Day Party; Argentina’s Peronist Party; and the Ba’thist Party through out the Middle East.
Xenophobia and hatred had little to do with the parties adherence to Socialist principles. Just as it had little to do with Communist principles. Yet both systems have historically preformed xenophobic programs. The Holocaust (18-21M), Cambodia’s Killing Fields (⅓ of the population; the USSR’s Gulag Archepeligo (25-56M); Mao’s Cultural Revolution (80-100M), North Korea’s death camps (massive, but unknown); the list goes on and on. So please, in the future, please know your history and do the math – in the Twentieth century, Socialism in its many forms accounted for hundreds of millions of brutal deaths.
Hate having to teach history – NAZI is an acronym for The National (NA) Socialist (ZI in Deutschland) Workers Party. So yes Nazi’s are Socialists, as are Communists (Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics). The difference between National and Communist Socialism is the concept of how to handle the means of production. Communists believe in ownership of all means of production, National Socialist believe in government control over the means of production, but the fiction of private ownership. The term fascism was coined by Mussolini to describe Corporatism (the Socialist philosophy behind National Socialism). Fascism comes cto on the Roman word fascia (the symbol of the Rome’s power) which describes a bundle of sticks tied together by a ribbon. Musolini chose this symbol because you could easily break a single stick (business, fraternal organizations, etc), but they became Unbreakable when bundled by the strings of state power. So in analyzing current political positions, the Democratic platform is closer (and in many respects components of the Republican platform too) to National Socialism than pure Republicanism or Communism.
Modern day political systems which directly draw their history from National Socialism include France’s National Front; Greece’s New Day Party; Argentina’s Peronist Party; and the Ba’thist Party through out the Middle East.
Xenophobia and hatred had little to do with the parties adherence to Socialist principles. Just as it had little to do with Communist principles. Yet both systems have historically preformed xenophobic programs. The Holocaust (18-21M), Cambodia’s Killing Fields (⅓ of the population; the USSR’s Gulag Archepeligo (25-56M); Mao’s Cultural Revolution (80-100M), North Korea’s death camps (massive, but unknown); the list goes on and on. So please, in the future, please know your history and do the math – in the Twentieth century, Socialism in its many forms accounted for hundreds of millions of brutal deaths.
Hey, we heard you the first time.
Access to these iOS devices is through the use of social engineering OR through the hacking of a website and harvesting account details.
In the case of social engineering, phishing or some other scam is used to fool the user into giving up their account details.
In the case of hacked websites, if the password used there is used at other sites or on an iOS device, instant PWNing results.
IOW: No encryption is involved AND you can’t social engineer dead people. 💀
oh…I just draw pictures, wtf do I know.
Wife said Russian social media is talking about this. In some cases the notification is fake. Obviously you can’t fake a lost phone lockout, but you can fake a message pop up in Safari.
Two factor authentication is lost on a lot of people. Yes it’s safer, but try getting a horse to drink it. At work we are talking about ways to protect our users. No one seems to be lost on how hard it would be to get 7000 middle aged people to do this.
Middle aged?
Hey leftists, didn’t you say that education was the answer to criminal behavior? I think you did.
You made everyone recite the ‘stay in school’ mantra, thinking it would make everyone magically moral.
Not working out quite as well as you thought is it? Now the world just has smarter criminals.
And your point is…. what?
– Everyone should leave school after Grade 5?
– Things were better in the good old days of the 14th Century?
– Your hick stupidity is much better all them durn book-larnin’ in-ter-lek-chuls?
Spot the leftist.
No answers, just mindless pejoratives and asinine ranting.
The leftist promises of a utopian Tomorrowland where educated peoples live in harmony hasn’t come about has it?
People are now more ‘educated’ than ever but things just get worse.
My brothers and I played at our local park all day long. Now I can’t let my kids out of my sight for a second.
That’s one generation. What the *F* does the 14th century have to do with anything??
Hackers, scam artists and ‘cyber criminals’ are having a field day on one side while govt. spying and google snooping encroaches from the other.
So come on, what’s your answer? MORE education?
Please excuse Cocoa Boy (Sean), he is a delicate flower that is suffering from premature manopause.
I think the notion that today is worse off than yesterday, is a misunderstanding. The true nature of societal change isn’t a path towards misgiving, but a path of enlightenment. What we witness is not increased wrong doing, but increased awareness, anxiety, and all the trimmings that go along with that.
Keeping our kids off the streets is nothing more than appeasing our own anxieties knowing that there are people out there wanting to take some child, and not necessarily our own. Who wants to take that risk?
In the Soviet Union, the inherent nature of human misgiving, was equal to our own (The West). The difference was a society which harbored silence over awareness. The outcome was children playing in the streets until dark, staying over at friends houses without calling home. While there were still perverts on the busses and streets lusting over the weak and innocent. Officially this didn’t happen, but it’s true.
Pining over a time forgotten is a dangerous thing. What is being asked for is something that was thought to exist but is a false impression. What is actually being asked for, is ignorance. Children will still go missing, identities will still be stolen. People will still get shot, stabbed and murdered.
The path is continuation towards enlightenment and education. Add to that lessons in morality, if you must. We are human, we are imperfect.
Seriously we are way better off today than we were 10/20 years ago, and take that as far back as you want. Some portions of society were better in the past, but it has to be looked at holistically. We are at the bleeding edge of solving latent racism, not that it’s worse today than yesterday, but we are finally able to understand and address fundamental problems that remained hidden, the whole time. This can be repeated over and over again for many other problems. As a result we will recognize new problems.
I don’t like the politicizing of social issues. There is no us vs them. We are all together. We have to suffer with each other’s products. Let’s try to make it as pleasant as possible.
The only solution anyone has ever dreamed up to solve the perennial H. sapiens dance of suicide is to abolish other tribes and replace them with your own. In other words, unify humanity by conquering them all. That hasn’t worked too well for thousands of years. Conceivably it could work if Earth were invaded by loathsome aliens, which would unite humankind at once. Our inbred racism would easily transfer to the grotesque creatures from Alpha Centauri or whatever.
So, hoping against hope, I keep watching the skies.
I respect your attempts to answer but it is sort of missing the point.
Are we better off?
Really?
My house has an expensive and technically marvelous alarm system that may dad never needed, is that a step forwards or back?
We’ve got lovely tech and a barrage of criminals using it to steal and defraud others, and no, the fact that I cannot let my children out of my sight is not just my imagination (wow, I can tell YOU don’t have kids) but a sad comment on the facts of life today.
Do you know how many are in jail in the US?
It topped 2 million some time ago, *two freaking million*. Somehow, even with all of these people put away there are still high crime rates.
No, kids did NOT go missing at the rates they do now. No, there was no such thing as ‘identity theft’ even though it was technically easier to pull off in the past. The essential questions remain answered, and it is politicized because only one group has been calling the shots and what they’ve ushered in is a cesspool that a few tech niceties do not compensate for.
I have kids and I worry about them just as much as you do. I also have an alarm system. My point was most of our problems are based on heightened awareness. We were more ignorant in the past. I still believe we are a bit better today than in the past, but mostly because once we see though the fog of ignorance we can actually do something about it. Again some things are worse while the majority is better, globally speaking, for all people. This brings out other inherent problems, like unsustainable consumption, but that’s a different discussion.
Your comments on child safety are skewed. Children are safer today than yesterday and crimes against them are in fact down (career law enforcement officer here). No one says you should not pay attention to your children and there whereabouts, but your PERCEPTION of crimes against children are not the same as actual numbers prove.
Some U.S. stats:
All violent crime: Down 48% 1993 – 2012
All homicides: Down 50.5% 1993-2012
Forcible rape: Down 34.5% 1993 – 2012
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports.
Violence Against Children 2-17 is going down too (and not just because we are helicoptering. Crime is down grown men and women too, and we don’t helicopter them):
Physical Assault: down 33% 2003 – 2011
Rape, attempted or completed: down 43% 2003 – 2011
Source: University of New Hampshire Crimes Against Children Research Center)
Some Older Info From Crimes Against Children Research Center (based on U.S. Dept. of Justice numbers):
Crime has been going down since the 1990s:
All U.S. homicides: Down 40% 1992 -2005.
Juvenile homicide: Down 36% 1993 – 2005 (kids under age 14)
Juvenile homicide: Down 60% 1993 – 2005 (age 14 – 17)
Forcible rape: Down 28% 1992 – 2006
Sex Abuse Substantiations of Children, 1990 – 2005: Down 51%
Physical Abuse Substantiations of Children, 1990 – 2005: Down 46%
Juvenile Sex victimization trends, 1993 – 2003: Down 79%
Abductions in perspective:
Number of children age 2 – 14 killed in car accidents, as passengers: 1300
Number of children killed each year by their family members and acquaintances: About 1000
Number of children abducted in “stereotypical kidnappings” (kidnapped by a stranger for ransom or for sexual purposes and/or transported away) in 1999, the most recent year for which we have statistics: 115.
Number of children killed by their abductor: About 50.
Murders of children by abductors constitute less than one half of 1% of all murders in America.
Stranger Danger?
Of all children under age 5 murdered from 1976-2005 —
31% were killed by fathers
29% were killed by mothers
23% were killed by male acquaintances
7% were killed by other relatives
3% were killed by strangers
Moral: Your safest bet is to leave your child with a stranger.
SOURCE: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/children.cfm
Missing Children?
When you hear about all the “missing children” remember: There is approximately one child abduction murder for every 10,000 reports of a missing child. (Source: Polly Klaas Foundation.)
Put it another way: The Department of Justice reports that of the 800,000 children reported “missing” in the United States each year, 115 are the result of “stereotypical kidnapping” — a stranger snatching the child. About 90 percent of abductees return home within 24 hours and the vast majority are teenage runaways.
For more statistics and an analysis of the number of children reported missing versus the number of children actually abducted by strangers, please see the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children conducted by the Department of Juvenile Justice & Deliquency Prevention: http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/nismart/03/ns5.html
You are more AWARE of crimes committed today than your parents ever were. There is no actual “local” anything anymore with national 24 hour news. The threats against us are mostly the same as they ever were… We are getting better at detection and apprehension and prevention, In some ways technology has made it easier for certain types of crimes, but criminals have always evolved with the times no matter the techonological advancement.
And i will answer your core question. I believer that yes, 100% we are better off then 10, 20, 30 years ago. We have our challenges like any generation. The answer is yes.
Yes, Hitler WAS a socialist. He believed in what was then and now is called National Socialism which was embued with German nationalism as well as many facets of Italian fascism which Hitler and other party leaders found attractive. German National Socialism can be traced back to Fredrick William I (1688-1740) and eveloved from there.
You need to do more research, not what your leftist teachers told you in high school or your progressive freinds all believe.
Adolph Hitler was a fascist and he killed anyone that got in his way as well as what groups considered undesirable in his party’s veiw.
Here’s a link you can explore:https://www.britannica.com/event/National-Socialism
To be sure, Hitler was a very bad man, a killer. The world is built by killers throughout history.
Hitler was also a socilaist….deal with it.
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One thing to keep in mind about Apple’s generated passwords is that even Apple rates many of them as no more than moderately good, and some as poor. That’s strange, but true.
Another problem that you’ll find is that a lot of web sites don’t remember your password, even if you check the “remember me” box. Many of those sites don’t allow the automatic Fill in password” function of the iOS keyboard, so you still need to fill that in manually, even though that password is in your device.
So the “if used properly, it works like a dream” isn’t nearly as true as it should be. I find that I still need to maintain a book at home with passwords, serial numbers, etc. While that is something which isn’t recommended, you need to think about how likely it is that someone is going to break into your house, or apartment, and then how likely it is that they’re going to look for such a book. It’s extremely unlikely.