Rumor has it that a gang of hackers—or possibly , one lonesome individual—holds the power to remotely wipe millions of iPhones and iCloud accounts , unless Apple coughs up some ransom money Attack.Ransom by April 7 . The gang calls themselves the `` Turkish Crime Family , '' and they 're demanding Attack.Ransom $ 75,000 in Bitcoin or Ethereum cryptocurrency . In a bizarre twist , they 're also willing to accept $ 100,000 in iTunes gift cards as an alternative form of payment Attack.Ransom , despite the obvious concern that Apple would easily be able to track this . In return , the hacker group would delete their entire collection of compromising data . According to Motherboard , a hacker has been quoted as saying : I just want my money and thought this would be an interesting report that a lot of Apple customers would be interested in reading and hearing . Apparently , one of the hackers shared screenshots of emails exchanged between the group and Apple , and then gave Motherboard 's Joseph Cox access to the email account as proof . The hackers claim to have over 300 million Apple email accounts , including ones with @ icloud and @ me domains . Later on , though , another hacker from the group claimed that they actually have 559 million accounts . The only other proof they provided was a YouTube video of the hackers allegedly logging into an elderly woman 's stolen iCloud account to view backed-up photos , then wiping her device , but this video has since been removed . Lending to the credibility of the hackers ' claims , though , Apple is stated to have asked the hacker group to remove the video from YouTube : We firstly kindly request you to remove the video that you have uploaded on your YouTube channel as it 's seeking unwanted attention , second of all we would like you to know that we do not reward cyber criminals for breaking the law . Cox also states that he read other emails in their account , and that it appeared the hackers have tried to approach many different media outlets to get more attention , possibly to help their extortion efforts Attack.Ransom . Now , we do n't know how true the Turkish Crime Family 's claims are , but this is a good time to remind you to frequently change your passwords . Make them strong and unique , people ! No names , birthdays , 123s , or whatnot .