A WAVE of Shenzhen residents found that their iPhones were hacked between midnight Sunday to Monday, the Daily Sunshine reported yesterday. Most of them have their NetEase’s 126.com or 163.com email accounts connected to iCloud, which appears to be linked to the cyber attack.

    The Guangzhou-based NetEase is one of China’s leading Internet technology companies. It provides email accounts, online music, news and games.

    On Sunday, NetEase Mail posted a statement on Weibo denying the NetEase database was attacked. It said hackers attacked users who log into other websites using the same mail accounts as at NetEase.

    “I started charging my iPhone at midnight and found it automatically updated itself. Its screen had a notice that said something like ‘Your phone was lost. Error. Please open a certain website for a resolution proposal,’” said an iPhone 5S user, surnamed Zhou.

    On Monday morning when Zhou went to the Apple store at Yitian Holiday Plaza in Nanshan District, he learned that the store had already received similar complaints from seven or eight iPhone users.

    An employee said the majority of the users had linked their iCloud to NetEase’s 126.com and 163.com email accounts.

    It’s suspected that NetEase’s mailing system may be compromised.

    The employee said the Apple store could not handle the problem, and hacked users should seek help from the Apple customer service specialists on the phone.

    The Daily Sunshine reporter then dialed the Apple hotline for after-sales service, and was told the hacking targets were higher in number in Shenzhen, with over 90 percent of the users having linked iCloud to NetEase mail accounts. The service specialist said after the iCloud passwords were leaked, the accounts were either annulled or manipulated.

    The person on the Apple hotline said the problem should be handed over to the account management department. If the account has been deleted, users can get it back by answering security questions.

    Worried users can check their NetEase email log-in records in the past month at reg.163.com and see whether there are abnormalities. It also suggested users unlink NetEase accounts from other websites and QQ.

    (Zhang Xiaoyi)