A 22-year-old cyber-criminal claimed to have access over 300 million iCloud accounts until Apple pays a ransom of $75,000 in crypto-currency or a thousand $100 iTunes gift card in return for deleting his database.
On 12 March 2017, a person named Kerem Albayrak claimed to be a spokesperson of “Turkish Crime Family” and have access to 319 million accounts.
Albayrak threatened that he would factory reset 319 million iCloud accounts and dump this data online.
However, if the company declined to meet his requirement, he will start wiping data remotely. A week later, Albayrak filmed a video of accessing two accounts and sent the footage to Apple.
Apple contacted law enforcement in the UK and US, and the NCA led the UK side of the investigation.
On 28 March 2017, officers from the NCA National Cyber Crime Unit arrested Albayrak at his home address in north London. They seized all his digital devices, including his mobile phone, computers, hard drive.
On further asking, the cybercriminal went on to say that “when you have power on the internet, it’s like fame and everyone respects you, and everyone is chasing that right now.”
During the investigation, it became clear that he was seeking fame and fortune. But cyber-crime doesn’t pay. The NCA is committed to bringing cyber-criminals to justice. Victims must report such compromises as soon as possible and retain all evidence
He was sentenced on Friday 20 December 2019 and given two years suspended jail 300 hours of unpaid work and six months of the electronic lockout at Southwark Crown Court.
Albayrak wrongly believed he could escape justice after hacking into two accounts and attempting to blackmail a large multi-national corporation
said Anna Smith, a Senior Investigative Officer for the NCA.
