Apple was blackmailed by hackers for Bitcoin! The other party claimed to have controlled 300 million Apple accounts

Apple is being targeted by hackers again!

Following the iCloud nude photo scandal in 2014, a group of hackers (or possibly just one) tried to blackmail Apple using large cache files from iCloud and Apple emails,media MotherBoard reported.

The hacker group, calling itself the Turkish Crime Family, demanded that Apple pay $75,000 in Bitcoin or Ethereum, another increasingly popular cryptocurrency, or $100,000 in iTunes gift cards, or they would remotely delete the data.

One of the hackers told Motherboard, "I just want money. This will be an interesting story and I believe many Apple users will be interested."

The hackers also showed screenshots of some emails between Apple's security team and granted Motherboard access to view the correspondence with Apple.

"Would you be willing to share a sample of the dataset?" an anonymous member of Apple's security team wrote in the email, which was sent a week ago from an email address @apple.com.

In addition, the hackers uploaded a video to YouTube in which the hacker group claimed that they were able to log into the stolen accounts and had the ability to remotely wipe the data on these devices, and demonstrated it using the account of a female user.

A screenshot of an email provided by the hackers showed that a member of Apple's security team protested the video: "First, we sincerely recommend that you delete the video that has been uploaded to YouTube because it is attracting unnecessary attention; second, we hope that you can realize that we will not reward the illegal behavior of cyber criminals." The member of Apple's security team also stated that they will hand over the communication documents with the hackers to the relevant departments.

In an email, the hackers claimed that they were able to access more than 300 million Apple email accounts, including those using the @icloud and @me domains. But the hackers' claims were inconsistent, with one hacker claiming they had access to 559 million accounts. However, the hackers did not provide any other proof other than the accounts used in the video.

The hacker group said that if Apple does not pay the ransom, they will reset some iCloud accounts on April 7 and remotely erase the data on the victims' Apple devices.

It is reported that these hackers have contacted multiple media outlets in an attempt to put pressure on Apple. Apple refused to comment on the news.