Apple which released the latest version of iOS 10.3 has included new features and bug fixes in it which solve the notorious cyber attack bug on 911 emergency call centers. The company has also warned all iCloud account users not to fall prey to fraudsters who are scamming individuals to skim money.
In October last year, a security vulnerability existing in Apple iOS was exploited by an 18-year-old iPhone App developer named Meeth Kumar Desai.
Mr. Desai later used a twitter account which had over 12k followers and tweeted a link that caused people’s iPhone dial 911 customer care on a repeated note, even after the user hanged up their respective phones.
Unfortunately, the tweet went viral and was shared and clicked 117,502 times. And this made iPhones repeatedly call 911 on an automated note which made many switches loose their service capability in 911 call center.
The Police department of Arizona arrested Desai and the accused immediately admitted to the police saying that he was just exploiting a bug in the iPhone OS which unfortunately lead to a cyber attack on 911 emergency call centers.
Desai is now facing charges of felony computer tapping which led to DDoS kind of cyber attacks on 911. He could face a jail term of 6-8 years and a fine of $5000 USD.
In response to this issue, Apple offered a bug fix in its latest 10.3 iOS version and also warned all its iCloud users not to fall prey to fraudsters who are pretending to be from a legitimate and trusted organization such as a bank or police and are scamming people for money.
From past three weeks, scamsters are either calling, texting or emailing iCloud users and are claiming to have cited some suspicious activity on their respective accounts. They are asking to verify or update their account details, or claim they are due to a refund.
After the cyber crook succeeds in tricking the target into giving away their personal or financial info such as passwords, payment card details or bank account data; they are demanding a ransom from Apple in exchange for some critical details of more than 300 million iCloud accounts.
As per the prima facie launched by Apple’s security team, a team of 300 hackers have participated in this scam so far and collected details of more than 280 million iCloud accounts through various sources.
UK’s popular news website Daily Mail has found that most of the iCloud users were victimized in the scam after they received a call from a US number +1 844 533 9067.
Apple has officially announced that it never calls its respective phone or iCloud users on such activities and pleaded its users not to fall prey to fraudsters by revealing personal information or data of any sort.
The company has launched a serious probe into this issue and will update more on it in the second week of April’17.
