Apple, Meta Shared Data With Child Hackers Impersonating Law Enforcement

April 1, 2022

According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple and Meta were tricked into providing users information by child hackers posing as law enforcement officials.

The companies reportedly responded to customer emergency data requests and provided personal information such as addresses, phone numbers and even customers’ IP addresses.

In the U.S., companies are required to disclose personal information only if a search warrant or subpoena has been signed by a judge.

In this case, Apple and Meta were duped by forged documents containing forged legal applications that were considered legitimate because they had been signed by fictitious law enforcement agencies.

The hackers behind the data emergency requests are believed to be minors from the U.S., and U.K. The group is believed to be linked to one of two hacking groups known as the Recursion Team or Lapsus$.

It remains to be seen whether Lapsus$ or Recursion Team were behind the impersonation of law enforcement.

For more information, read the original story in TechRepublic.

Top Stories

Related Articles

April 20, 2026 A U.S. court has ordered shadow library Anna’s Archive to pay $322 million in damages after finding more...

April 17, 2026 Microsoft’s Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs is again under scrutiny after a researcher demonstrated a way to more...

April 17, 2026 OpenAI is telling staff to prioritise expanding its partnership with Amazon Web Services, signalling a strategic shift more...

April 17, 2026 Uber says its spending on AI coding tools has already exceeded internal forecasts as adoption accelerates across more...

Jim Love

Jim is an author and podcast host with over 40 years in technology.

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn