Two Russian men apparently linked to the iPhone lockout scam that hit Australia in May have been arrested. The two have been accused of remotely locking victim's iPhones and then demanding a ransom, and while authorities stopped short of saying they were involved on the Oleg Pliss attacks, their actions sound exactly the same.
Suspects in Oleg Pliss-like attack arrested in Moscow
The two men were 17 and 23 years old, according to Infosecurity. The suspects used phishing websites to trick victims into giving up their Apple ID user name and password, and also used a scheme where victims were promised large amounts of media content in exchange for their account information.
With the victim's Apple IDs in hand, the suspects were able to use Find My iPhone to remotely lock iPhones, iPads and Macs, and then demand ransom before unlocking the devices.
At the time of the attacks, speculation ranged from logins culled from data breaches at other companies to a hack on Apple's own iCloud servers. Apple publicly denied its servers were hacked.
Moscow authorities found documentation on hacking systems, along with SIM cards and phones they say were used in illegal activities.
While the suspects do fit nicely into the Oleg Pliss scheme, Moscow police aren't definitively stating the two men were involved in that incident. While it's likely they were, there's still a possibility this was a coincidental scheme and the real Oleg Pliss suspects are still in the wild.