The two American giants were victims of very well organized hackers.
No, it’s not an April Fool’s joke. Yes, Apple and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, have indeed been the victims of a rather sophisticated phishing operation, as revealed by the Bloomberg agency. The hackers produced false official requests, repeating those usually used by American law enforcement in the context of their investigations. The practice is relatively common, with police often using data from major platforms in their investigations.
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Hand on heart, Apple and Meta have therefore dived in and provided the smart guys with internet and postal addresses as well as telephone numbers of some of their users. The scam took place in mid-2021, but was only revealed this week by US media. What to bring water to the mill of Apple which regularly considers not to have to collaborate with justice….
Too clever teenagers
However, a recent report produced by Krebs on Security, quoted by the American site The Verge, shows that false urgent requests – American version of letters rogatory – are increasingly common. The process takes place in two stages. Hackers first gain access to emails from the local equivalent of a police station. Under this false identity, they then create a request, which further describes the potential risk in the event of an immediate non-response. Also according to this report, there is even a parallel market for the sale of false addresses to hackers, decidedly very well organized.
Better yet, the hackers behind this type of fraud are mostly teenagers, very far from the archetype of the villain in Hollywood films. Some of them have already been arrested. Something to think about for those who would like to imitate them.