My terrible Apple ID hack revealed the flaws of centralized identity.

I was the sophisticated target of a breach of my Apple ID that caused significant emotional and financial loss. As a tech entrepreneur with my background, I knew the importance of multi-factor authentication and the warning signs of SIM swaps and had precautions. Despite this vigilance, one evening in January last year I was the victim of a brazen attack, which sadly showed that it can happen to anyone.

I've had my Apple ID since it was invented. I've bought tens of thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands — of dollars worth of software, movies, TV shows, hardware. Suddenly I was told 15,000 login attempts. It was literally “boom, boom, boom.” “Don't let me, don't let me, don't let me,” I pressed.

Then I got a call from someone who said I work for Apple tech support. They had in-depth information about how many devices I had and the last time they were used – where the login attempts came from. Many unsuspecting victims found this call credible, but something just didn't sit right with me. He said, “I'm going to send you a code” – and I said, “I won't.”

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Codes were sent to my phone – the same number that Apple used to send verification codes before. I decided to call Apple directly to find out what was going on, but the nightmare was just beginning. The attacker managed to access my account.

I explained what was going on, but the woman from Apple basically said, “Accept your loss.” Excuse me? what do you mean? I'm tech savvy – I know my Apple ID can be lost forever. That's not to say there weren't big things in the game. I had intangible tokens (NFTs) and wisdom that I kept for two years. I had to get a lot of corporate accounts, brokerage accounts—all kinds of things. And she repeated, “Accept your loss, accept your loss, accept your loss.”

I was in a race against time to secure my assets and started moving my fiat money to a safe place, but my crypto was floating around in a wallet that was out of my control. Then I received an anonymous call from someone using a voice modulator: “Check your telegram.

Three people were sent messages saying they would get my Apple ID and property back if they provided their phone numbers and email addresses. But I refused and told the assailant that he had chosen the wrong person.

I started tweeting about the situation and the hacker freaked out. I took down the tweet because it threatened to leak pictures of my four-month-old daughter.

They continued to message me, and I was told that I would get my Apple ID back unless I logged in online for 48 hours. But three days later, the goalposts changed again. Now the attacker was demanding $50,000.

“Typically, what I do is find people who are connected, doing something wrong, or who have sensitive information that I can steal,” the cybercriminal told me.

Months of terror

During the next three months, the attacker was trying to exploit and threaten me – I had to hide the anxiety from my husband and son. To make matters worse, my Amex and Chase withdrawal limits were reduced, and my credit rating plummeted.

Undeterred, I continued to exchange messages with the person who stole my identity, compiling gigabytes of evidence.

I didn't know that the walls were already closing in on the attacker. The criminal was on law enforcement's radar after being accused of SIM swapping – and investigators soon realized this was the tip of the iceberg. Because stolen funds were used on Cash App and Venmo, investigators were able to connect the dots and identify the victim. When an FBI agent called, I was able to provide a detailed description of the person responsible – and it was enough to get a warrant. They went and broke into the house. The person was on my Apple ID.

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A later investigation revealed that there were about 20 other victims. Most of them were women. He used to make many of them commit sexual acts. I got a call from a judicial officer who I didn't know was this a thing. She says she's been around serial killers, murderers…bad guys, and she's never felt worse than meeting this guy.

I was the only one who wasn't afraid to speak up – and I gave a written statement to the court. The force of those words caused the judge to double his sentence to eight years, even though he pleaded guilty and convicted his friends. A federal case is pending so he will remain in jail for some time. It is a waste of life.

Protect your digital identity

It was one of the saddest experiences of my life.

Meanwhile, countless millions of people around the world continue to rely on their Apple ID in their daily lives – blissfully unaware of the dangers of hacking. Take my social security number, not my digital identity. I didn't realize Apple was my digital identity until it was too late.

The attacker was part of a wider, more sophisticated scheme – fraudsters boldly advertised job vacancies to join them. When people unwittingly engage in financial crimes, they join what they think are really working for Apple Support.

New speech recognition solutions are urgently needed to better protect the public – especially since a person's voice can be recreated and abused in less than 30 minutes.

Digital IDs will be the foundation of Web3. Without them, we can't really be sure who we're talking to. Our communication stack as a society, as a civilization is now embarrassing. A true digital identity lets you control your own data and solutions. Now I can take information from my doctor and put it in my storage. I can protect my financial information. I can take all that.

I want to make sure this never happens to anyone. I'm about to receive a refund from Apple for all the purchases I've made over the past 20 years as compensation – and I'd like to share these tips with other victims:

Keep a strict timeline and take strict notes.Write down the law enforcement officials you speak with and the date and time of the call, as well as their name and details.Contact the local police and tell them what happened.File a detailed IC3 report. Because this will help federal authorities catch criminals

After experiencing the devastating impact of having my digital life stolen in the blink of an eye, I believe there is only one answer: Decentralized identities where personal information is fully encrypted and stored in a secure wallet.

This article is not intended for general information purposes and should not be construed as legal or investment advice. The views, ideas and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.