Macrumors.com reported that a number of iOS and Mac users in Australia are reporting a growing problem on the Apple Support forums in which hackers are remotely locking iPads, iPods, iPhones and Macs through iCloud. Below is link to thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6270410?start=0&tstart=0





Member veritylikestea on Apple Support Communities:

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 to return them to me.

Member Sei_L on Apple’s forums also reports a similar message:

Same things here, both Ipads got the “hacked by Oleg Pliss” message, both have passcodes. In Western Australia also. I’ve chatted with Apple Chat and they said “this is very serious.” They’ve set up a phone call back from the correct department (whoever they are) tomorrow morning so we’ll see what happens then. We can access the ipads because they both had passcodes but when an app is used, it comes up with GameCentre password request; we didn’t put it in.

IT security expert Troy Hunt commented on the specifics of the issue, stating that the hackers are likely using compromised data exposed from recent security breaches to login to iCloud accounts. Hunt also notes that the accounts hacked were likely not using two-step verification, suggesting that a single password would have not had granted access had the feature been turned on.

Affected users in Australia have been discussing the issue on Twitter and Apple’s own support forum.