veritylikestea
Level 1 (1 points)

Q: My devices have been hacked. What do I do?

i was using my ipad a short while ago when suddenly it locked itself, and was askiwhich I'd never previously set up. I went to check my phone and there was a message on the screen (it's still there) saying that my device(s) had been hacked by 'Oleg Pliss' and he/she/they demanded $100 USD/EUR (sent by paypal to lock404(at)hotmail.com) to return them to me.

 

I have no idea how this has happened. I am not aware of having been exposed to malware or anything else, although i did recently purchase some new apps - perhaps one of these has something to do with it? I don't know. I am not sure what avenue has been used to reach my devices - I'm about to use my husband's laptop to check through some of my accounts (gmail, etc) and see if there is any clue there.

 

Has this happened to anyone else? What can or should I do? Many thanks

iPhone 5

Posted on May 26, 2014 4:57 AM

by georz,Solvedanswer
georz georz
Level 1 (10 points)
A:

I had the same problem originally. This is what I was told to do (and did) over the phone with applecare support.

 

Turn off your phone.

Plug your cable into the computer and have itunes up (do not plug into the phone yet)

Press and hold the home key on your off phone (I did mine for about 10 seconds). If nothing happens, plug in the cable into your phone (keep holding the home key)

What you want to see come up is the picture of itunes and cable on the front of the phone

Your itunes should then recognise the phone as an unidentified phone

Select restore factory settings (it should down load some software) ~15 mins and automatically install

The phone should go through some of the standard reset screens (usually black screen with apple icon and loading bar)

You will be prompted to restore the phone.... do this from itunes not the phone

 

Throughout this process you must not let the phone or computer go into sleep mode.... and don't disconnect.

 

I had the same issue with the lock screen but it was related to sim card once I did the restore.

 

I had to set the erase from icloud website, but that didn't originally work as it requires connection to the internet for it to apply, hence plugging it into the computer.

 

I accidentally started setting up my phone via the phone and got stuck on the sim card lock screen so had to do it from scratch again and this time via itunes and all good. Hope that helps

Posted on May 26, 2014 6:37 PM

Close
veritylikestea

Q: My devices have been hacked. What do I do?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 19 of 32 last Next

  • by deskokat,

    deskokat deskokat May 27, 2014 7:26 AM in response to Greg Earle
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 27, 2014 7:26 AM in response to Greg Earle

    We're exhausted here in Oz! I've been up since 4:30am yesterday...

  • by Andrew J,

    Andrew J Andrew J May 27, 2014 7:26 AM in response to Greg Earle
    Level 3 (790 points)
    May 27, 2014 7:26 AM in response to Greg Earle

    Greg Earle wrote:

     

    At the top of the page/thread I'm seeing

     

    Branched to a new discussion.

     

    with a link to a different thread, but when I try to click on that link/thread, I get a page saying "Unauthorized" and (in pinkish red)

     

    It appears you're not allowed to view what you requested. You might contact your administrator if you think this is a mistake.

     

    Anyone else seeing this?

     

    (Also wondering why this thread is dying down - no other US people affected?)

    It seems to have been closed off. That does happen, why, is anyone's guess.

     

    Its past midnight in Oz now, so people have gone to bed. The US have just woken up, so we'll have to wait and see if this thing has spread. I'm done for today.

  • by Rojmer,

    Rojmer Rojmer May 27, 2014 7:31 AM in response to Greg Earle
    Level 4 (1,524 points)
    iPhone
    May 27, 2014 7:31 AM in response to Greg Earle

    We are all seeing that pink message.  That happens when a post is blocked by the moderators for whatever reason, generally being inappropriate, but there could be other reasons.   Do not worry about it.

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. May 27, 2014 7:37 AM in response to Greg Earle
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 27, 2014 7:37 AM in response to Greg Earle

    (Also wondering why this thread is dying down - no other US people affected?)

     

    I've heard reports of a very few people outside the Australia/New Zealand area who saw this same behavior. But no widespread cases anywhere outside that area, to my knowledge. What's going on is anyone's guess at this point - and most of the guesses so far have been shot down - but there still seems to be a strong association with that part of the world.

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA May 27, 2014 7:53 AM in response to Greg Earle
    Level 9 (79,692 points)
    iTunes
    May 27, 2014 7:53 AM in response to Greg Earle

    Greg Earle wrote:

     

    At the top of the page/thread I'm seeing
    ..
    Anyone else seeing this?

     

    Any posts that are removed by the foprum moderators are not simply deleted.

    They are dumped into some place only the forum moderators can access.

    The line at top simply shows that a/some posts have been removed (but not why).

  • by Greg Earle,

    Greg Earle Greg Earle May 27, 2014 7:55 AM in response to Chris CA
    Level 2 (158 points)
    Windows Software
    May 27, 2014 7:55 AM in response to Chris CA

    Cheers for that - I was afraid I'd have to "contact [my] administrator".  Oh, wait ... that's me

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA May 27, 2014 7:56 AM in response to Opsystem
    Level 9 (79,692 points)
    iTunes
    May 27, 2014 7:56 AM in response to Opsystem

    Opsystem wrote:

     

    According to news sites around the world reporting on this attack. The exploit uses the “Find My iPhone” feature, which allows users to remotely lock their iPhones and iPads via iCloud in case the devices are lost or stolen.

    It is likely being reported because one "news" site saw this thread and all the other "news sites"  jumped on their same story, not because these "news sites" actually did any research.

  • by Johnathan Burger,

    Johnathan Burger Johnathan Burger May 27, 2014 9:23 AM in response to Chris CA
    Level 6 (16,109 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 27, 2014 9:23 AM in response to Chris CA

    Here is a sane and logical article:

    http://blogs.computerworld.com/cybercrime-and-hacking/23953/how-defend-against-a pples-oleg-pliss-icloud-attack

     

    Apple was not breached, Ebay was.

  • by dilbert41,

    dilbert41 dilbert41 May 27, 2014 9:50 AM in response to Johnathan Burger
    Level 4 (3,729 points)
    iTunes
    May 27, 2014 9:50 AM in response to Johnathan Burger

    Its been well reported that Ebay and Adobe were hacked, but there is nothing in that article that says Apple wasn't breached. There are accounts of users with passwords unique to iCloud who have been hacked , so I would say the jury is still out.

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. May 27, 2014 10:11 AM in response to Johnathan Burger
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 27, 2014 10:11 AM in response to Johnathan Burger

    Apple was not breached, Ebay was.

     

    As has already been well established here, eBay is not the problem. Some affected users don't even have eBay accounts.

  • by MidniteDaydream,

    MidniteDaydream MidniteDaydream May 27, 2014 10:13 AM in response to Johnathan Burger
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 27, 2014 10:13 AM in response to Johnathan Burger

    No one I know who was hacked uses the same password for eBay, Adobe and Apple. This is a smoke screen. The three devices we had hacked didn't have eBay accounts associated with them  - they belonged to kids. None of our kids knows the password associeted with their iTunes/App store account - a security measure to ensure that in app purchasing doesn't get out of hand. Each of their phones uses a different paswword unique to that account, not used elsewhere. They did have the find friends app active, not just the find my phone app.  We like to keep track of our kids. No one seems to be mentioning the Find Friends app.

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA May 27, 2014 10:55 AM in response to MidniteDaydream
    Level 9 (79,692 points)
    iTunes
    May 27, 2014 10:55 AM in response to MidniteDaydream

    MidniteDaydream wrote:

     

    No one I know who was hacked uses the same password for eBay, Adobe and Apple. This is a smoke screen.

    A smoke screen by who?

    You mean it simply poor/crappy reporting.

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. May 27, 2014 11:28 AM in response to lozzab22
    Level 7 (30,944 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 27, 2014 11:28 AM in response to lozzab22

    lozzab22 wrote:

     

    I have an unlocked iphone originally from Australia, but its now with me living in Toronto, Canada

     

    I have the feeling that those few people reporting this from outside the Australia/New Zealand area will be the key to finding the cause. Are you using any kind of VPN service on the phone? What company handles the phone's cell/data service? Anything you can think of might be helpful!

  • by Loonbeam1,

    Loonbeam1 Loonbeam1 May 27, 2014 11:35 AM in response to thomas_r.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 27, 2014 11:35 AM in response to thomas_r.

    The only weird thing about my wife's is that she got one via a corporate gift program, but her other iPad was ordered from the US.  Neither of us have been to AUS/NZ nor do we use a VPN.  Her devices are wi-fi only so no carrier.  I have no idea where the corp gift program gets them from...

  • by Opsystem,

    Opsystem Opsystem May 27, 2014 2:40 PM in response to veritylikestea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 27, 2014 2:40 PM in response to veritylikestea

    Dear Apple Customer,

     

    Your Apple ID was just used to purchase "Skype credit 20$" from the iTunes Store on a computer or device that had not not previously been associated with that Apple ID.
    You may also be receiving this email if you reset your password since your last purchase. This purchase was initiated from 217.149.182.125 (Volgograd, Russia).

     

    If you made this purchase, you can disregard this email. It was only sent to alert you in case you did not make the purchase yourself.

     

    If you did not make this purchase, we recommend that you urgently check your Apple ID:

     

    Apple ID (the link was in this text but I cleared it)

     

    Remember, that Apple will never asks you to provide your secure details by e-mail or phone.


    Yours sincerely,
    Apple Inc.

    My wife recieved the above suspect Phishing email on the 16th of May.  She sensibly deleted it.  I wonder if others clicked through?  We are in the UK BTW.

first Previous Page 19 of 32 last Next