--- description: An early-morning hack left many Australians with non-working phones with a ransom not to a Pay Pal account title: Apple Devices Hacked And Held For Ransom Across Australia image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Apple iPhones, iPads Hacked and Held for Ransom by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 27, 2014 1:20 PM CUT by [Laura Stampler](/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 27, 2014 1:20 PM CUT Apple iPhone, iPad and Mac owners across Australia woke up to some unpleasant news Thursday: A hacker going by the name Oleg Pliss reportedly [took over](http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/australian-apple-idevices-hijacked-held-to-ransom-20140527-zrpbj.html "undefined") their devices and is demanding ransoms of between $50 and $100 to unlock them. This message asking for money appeared on various Apple devices: Affected parties took to Twitter to complain: Lots of I-Phone's, I-Pad's & Mac's hacked across the country today. Have you been affected? [pic.twitter.com/oRnJUTeJSf](http://t.co/oRnJUTeJSf "undefined") — Aaron Lucas (@AaronLucasMedia) [May 27, 2014](https://twitter.com/AaronLucasMedia/status/471153522608582656?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw "undefined") There are [reports](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/27/iphones-ipads-hacked-australia-new-zealand%5Fn%5F5395365.html "undefined") that the hack was conducted by exploiting a weakness in Apple’s “Find My iPhone” feature. Some victims who had set a password on their device were able to unlock them without paying the ransom. However, most people without passwords set up prior to the attack were not able to regain access to their device. Online payment service PayPal told the Sydney _Morning Herald_ that there is no account linked to the email address in the message and that anyone who had paid the ransom money could be refunded. There was no refund on lost sleep over the problem, however. \[[_Sydney Morning Herald_](http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/australian-apple-idevices-hijacked-held-to-ransom-20140527-zrpbj.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/118535/apple-iphone-ipad-hacked-ransom/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/118535/apple-iphone-ipad-hacked-ransom/"},"headline":"Apple iPhones, iPads Hacked and Held for Ransom","datePublished":"2014-05-27T13:20:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:19.730Z","description":"An early morning hack left many Australians with non-working phones and a ransom note","url":"https://time.com/118535/apple-iphone-ipad-hacked-ransom/","keywords":["Tech","Internet","viral","Bizarre","Security","Hack"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/118535/apple-iphone-ipad-hacked-ransom/","name":"Apple iPhones, iPads Hacked and Held for Ransom"}}]}] ```