What happened: On Apr 1, Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, supplied consumer data to hackers posing as law enforcement authorities. Details: In response to the faked “emergency data demands,” Apple and Meta gave basic subscriber facts, such as a customer’s address, phone number, and IP address, in mid-2021. According to the persons, such demands are usually only granted with a search warrant or subpoena signed by a court. The emergency requests, on the other hand, do not require a court order. Suspects: Cybersecurity experts believe that some of the hackers who sent the bogus requests are minors from the United Kingdom and the United States. They say one of the minors is also suspected of being the brains behind the cybercrime group ‘Lapsus$,’ which attacked Microsoft Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., and Nvidia Corp as well. Seven people were recently arrested by the City of London Police in connection with an investigation into the Lapsus$ hacking gang. What you need to know: Apple and Meta both post information about how they respond to emergency data demands. Apple received 1,162 emergency requests from 29 countries between July and December 2020. According to the research, Apple responded to 93% of the requests with data. From January to June 2021, Meta said it received 21,700 emergency requests worldwide and responded to 77 percent of them with data.