Authorities in Russia have arrested two young hackers aged 23 and 17 for their alleged involvement in iOS ransomware attacks last month.
A week before iOS ransomware attacks came to light in Australia and New Zealand, reports in local Russian media claimed that citizens were being targeted with ransomware attacks through Find My iPhone feature.
It is unclear whether these two hackers are responsible for the Australian attacks or if they were accomplished by some copycats.
According to reports in local Russian media, one of the hackers was already tried earlier and that none of them studied or worked and were always on the lookout for ways to make easy money.
After the hackers were detained, their apartments were searched and items such as SIM cards, PCs, mobile phones and hacking literature were seized.
The hackers were arrested after they were caught by a CCTV trying to withdraw the ransom money received from victims. The hackers have already confessed to their crimes, local reports indicate.
According to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs the authorities have been successful in putting a stop to activities of a group of hackers known to be involved in blocking of Apple devices to extort funds.
“The first was to gain access to the Apple ID of a victim’s account by creating phishing pages, [gaining] unauthorised access to email, or using social engineering techniques,” read the statement. “The second scheme was aimed at binding … devices to a pre-arranged account.”
Instances of Oleg Pliss ransomware first emerged in Australia followed by New Zealand last month where iOS and Mac users were greeted with a message that read “Device hacked by Oleg Pliss”.
The message was accompanied by a ransom note that demanded anywhere between $50 and $100 if they wanted to get their device unlocked.
