Apples's hacking blackmailer sentenced in London

A malicious hacker who blackmailed Apple with stolen data base goes to jail.

A 22-year-old man named Kerem Albayrak from North London who demanded having access to over 300 million iCloud accounts and threatened to factory reset all accounts till Apple payed him ransom has been proven guilty in London on the charges of trying to blackmail Apple.

In March 2017, he claimed to be the face of a hacking group called the "Turkish Crime Family" and owning 319 million iCloud accounts.

The deadline he gave to Apple was until April 7, 2017. The amount of the ransom was stipulated to $75,000 in crypto-currency or $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards against doing away with the copy of the stolen databank, the U.K. National Crime Agency said in a statement, describing the blackmailer a "fame-hungry cyber-criminal."

Albayrak further threatened that he would remotely wipe the victim's Apple devices, factory reset iCloud accounts and dump the stolen database online in case the ransom was unpaid.

In late March 2017, the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit arrested Albayrak at his home and seized digital devices, including his phone, computers and hard drives when Apple contacted the U.K. and the U.S.authorities.

The NCA investigation revealed that the Apple's iCloud network was un-compromised and that the data Albayrak claimed to own was actually from "previously compromised third-party services which were mostly inactive."

Earlier this month, he was pleaded guilty to one count of blackmail and two counts of "unauthorized acts with intent to impair the operation of or prevent/hinder access to a computer."

On 20 December, Albayrak was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court with a two year suspended jail term, full 300 hours of unpaid work in the neighborhood, and a six-month electronic curfew.

Albayrak told NCA on being quizzed about the attack"once you get sucked into it [cyber crime], it just escalates and it makes it interesting when it's illegal," adding "when you have power on the internet it's like fame and everyone respects you, and everyone is chasing that right now."

ISOEH has been the ultimate skill development school which arms India against such cyber criminals with its expert alumni of cyber security experts.

Tweet

Share