How to protect my iPad from pirats?

That email was a scam and they are flat out lying in order to frighten you into giving out personal information or steal money.

There are no known virus or malware exploits in the wild for iOS 9.3.5 or newer.

As explained by Michael Black, the email you received was a scam - a “phishing” email that was attempting to extort money from the unwary or gullible.

There are some measures that you can implement to improve your security and reduce risk. I’m sorry if the following sounds a little technical, but it is difficult to provide an adequate explanation without some detail. I’ll try to keep this as simple as I can.

Due to the system architecture of iOS/iPadOS, unless jailbroken (don’t go there!), your iPad is not susceptible to traditional malware infection per-se. However, as with all computer systems, there are still vulnerabilities and exploits to which you remain vulnerable.

For iPad and iPhone, browser-based attacks are the most common - and can largely be mitigated by installing a good, trusted, Content and Ad-blocking product. One of the very best and most respected within the Apple App Store - designed for iPad, iPhone and Mac - is 1Blocker for Safari.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/1blocker-for-safari/id1365531024

1Blocker is highly configurable - and crucially does not rely upon an external proxy-service of dubious provenance. All processing takes place on your device - and contrary to expectations, Safari will run faster and more efficiently.

Unwanted content is not simply filtered after download (a technique used by basic/inferior products), but instead undesirable embedded content blocked form download. A further benefit on metered services, such as cellular connections where you data may be capped or chargeable, this not only improves speed but also saves you money.

If you install a good Content blocker, a high proportion of otherwise inescapable risk when using your Safari browser, or linking to external sources from email, is effectively mitigated before it even reaches you.

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Installing 1Blocker for Safari will not prevent “bad” email from reaching your email account, but it will significantly reduce the risk of something “nasty” occurring as a result of receiving it. If you do nothing else, using this or another good Content blocker product is an excellent defence.

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A further (more advanced) measure to improve protection is to use a trusted Recursive DNS Service in preference to automatic settings. This can either be set on a per-device basis in Settings, or can be set-up on your home Router. I strongly recommend using one of the following services - for which IPv4 and IPv6 server addresses are listed:

Quad9 (recommended)

9.9.9.9

149.112.112.112

2620:fe::fe

2620:fe::9

OpenDNS

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

2620:0:ccc::2

2620:0:ccd::2

Cloudflare+APNIC

1.1.1.1

1.0.0.1

2606:4700:4700::1111

2606:4700:4700::1001

Use of the above DNS services will help to shield you from “known bad” websites and URLs - and when used alongside 1Blocker, provides defense in depth.

I hope this information proves to be helpful.

It means those emails claiming they’ve detected a virus, or rooted your device and want bitcoin ransom or any such wild claims are all scams, plain and simply. They cannot remotely hack your iOS devices, they cannot remotely scan your system, they cannot remotely see your data and files on the device.

These email and text message scams are common and millions of people get them every day, whether they use an iOS device, a MacOS device, and android device, a MS Windows device, a Linux device, etc. They are all based on the sender hoping your scared enough or simply don’t know enough, to fall for their scam.

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