electronic Global Trade Credit Platform/eGTCP's Blog: Your iPhone Personal Data Has Stolen, Check Now

Chinese authorities announced today that a network of scammers extracted data from Apple databases and sold it to Chinese black market vendors, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. This underground network consisted of dozens of employees of direct Apple suppliers and other firms Apple outsources work to, and the group gathered users’ names, phone numbers, Apple IDs, and other data and then sold it piecemeal for between 10 ($1.47) and 80 yuan ($11.78) per data point, for a total of 50 million yuan ($7.36 million).

image credit: internet

Twenty-two people have been detained on suspicion of infringing individuals’ privacy and illegally obtaining their digital personal information, according to a statement from local police in southern Zhejiang province on Wednesday.

Of the 22 suspects, 20 were Apple employees who allegedly used the company’s internal computer system to gather users’ names, phone numbers, Apple IDs, and other data, which they sold as part of a scam worth more than 50 million yuan ($7.36 million).

The statement did not specify whether the data belonged to Chinese or foreign Apple customers.

It took Chinese authorities, working out of the southern Zhejiang province, months to build the case before arrests were carried out this past weekend across Zhejiang, as well the Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Fujian provinces. The suspects in question worked in for companies with access to company databases and other tools containing sensitive customer information.

The sale of data in China is nothing new. The country is rife with marketplaces for illegally obtained information, either gleaned from corporate or government databases. However, due to the perception that owners Apple products are more affluent than those with lower-budget smartphones, hackers and other data theft specialists may specifically target iPhone users in an attempt to extort them or gain access to more sensitive data stored in the cloud.

In December, an investigation by the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper exposed a black market for private data gathered from police and government databases.

Reporters successfully obtained a trove of material on one colleague -- including flight history, hotel checkouts and property holdings -- in exchange for a payment of 700 yuan ($100). Here eGTCP reminds you whatever where you are, we're not at liberty to reveal very much.

Following services in global trade: