Hackers took a bite out of the Apple-using world -- mostly the Australian part -- this morning, with many Aussies waking up to find that they had been locked out of their iPhones, iPads or Macs.

The key to getting back in: paying a ransom via PayPal.

Woken up at 2am by hacked 'Find My iPhone' asking for money, no sleeping after trying to sort that out so at work at 6am: Today will be fun.

— Casey Maree (@_caseymaree_) May 26, 2014

Lots of I-Phone's, I-Pad's & Mac's hacked across the country today. Have you been affected? http://t.co/8nQpddwLcH pic.twitter.com/oRnJUTeJSf

— Aaron Lucas (@AaronLucasBris) May 27, 2014

Hackers were apparently able to exploit a weakness in the iCloud Find My iPhone feature, meant to allow owners to lock their phones remotely if they are lost or stolen but used in this case, perversely, to lock owners out of their own phones.

Apple forum users were busy discussing fixes today, and the good news for many users appeared to be that if you use a four-digit PIN on your device, merely entering that would get you back in.

A less-desirable but workable solution: reset your device to the last backup point, losing some data but regaining entry.

The long and short of the online discussion seemed to be that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Hey everyone, if you have an iPhone/iPad make sure it has a passcode. It's a pain, but it may prevent your phone being held to ransom.

— Mary-Helen Ward (@drwitty_knitter) May 27, 2014

As with most hacking situations, this rash of hacks serves as a good reminder to use stronger passwords and two-step verification.

Featured image via the Associated Press

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Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter