Apple has responded to claims that a hacker group obtained access to more than 600 million iCloud accounts. In a statement to Fortune, Apple said that there have not been any breaches to its systems and that its user data is safe.
Apple says that the data hackers claim to have appears to be from “previously compromised third-party services.” The full statement from Apple is below:
Additionally, Apple explained that it will continue to “actively monitor” the situation and work with law enforcement to ensure that user data remains safe.
Apple’s statement comes after a Motherboard report suggested that a group of hackers who identify as the “Turkish Crime Family” had gained access to hundreds of millions of iCloud accounts. The hacker group claimed that they would remotely wipe the victims’ devices if Apple refused to pay a $150,000 ransom price by April 7th. The allegations drew skepticism from many people, who doubted the claims and saw it as a potential scam for money.
Now that Apple has denied the breach, it seems as if the data came from a widespread data compromise that affected another service. It’s possible that the credentials were obtained from a hack to a service such as Yahoo, which has been compromised several times.
The situation has been making the rounds in the press, but with Apple denying the allegations, the situation will hopefully diffuse. Read the full Motherboard report for more details.
