Apple apparently confirmed that one developer had a bunch of apps and hacked the Store to purchase his apps unlawfully, without users' permission.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1...dodgy-developer


There's one part I find weird:

How about you issue refunds for the transactions that you know where fraudulent, or err on the side of caution and assume NOBODY bought this guy's applications, and refund all money. Then Apple can pursue him for their costs to do so. Funny that Apple wants you to get the money from your credit company.

 

Another source:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/securi...subSection=News


This of interest to nobody? At least some folks here have iPhones and could've been part of this...

 

That sucks for Iphone users. Apple should be responsible for resolving this since it was their site that was hacked and used.

Smart consumers should also change their credit cards.

 

Wow that's some crappy customer care from Apple. Here's more iPhone fail, now we know they keep dropping calls despite having a good signlal:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardwa...cleID=225702349

 

That's why i keep wifi off, and change my password often to itunes.
People don't believe me, and still won't even if apple didn't even pick up their customer service calls, but they're not that great of a company.

 

thats kind of stupid. Apple has really been disappointing me lately.

 

Apple is really falling off the cliff lately. In years past you could be a blind sheep to apple products and buy decent products sight unseen, info unread but these days if you don't read detailed reviews about what you are buying you have a get burned.

I love the whole smug attitude that apple and steve jobs give off as well. "There isn't a problem with our phones, it's an internet rumor".

What a pompous a$$.

 

Wait - was the iTunes Store hacked, like through a technical vulnerability? Or did a collection of users simply have their credentials compromised, like through phishing scams or similar? Those are two VERY different situations.

 

Hard to tell...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366129,00.asp

 

A developer of iPhone apps used customer data from his apps to buy more of his apps. It wasn't an iTunes hack, it was some douche stealing from his customers to bump his product.

More concerning, this seems to be part of a bigger issue where users of infected computers have their passwords stolen and sold to developers to make money. In this case, people's infected computers are the root cause of the problem.

So far Apple has only stated that ~400 accounts were effected and that it will increase the frequency of CC certification info to bump security, but with 150 million active accounts, 400 accounts is pretty small. Still it sucks that it happened, and the reality is there are probably many more compromised accounts.

The real issue is developers that are building apps to steal customers' info and general hackers stealing account information from PCs - its social engineering like phishing and people are falling for it regardless of what platform you're on. The important thing to remember is not to submit your account information to any app, just the main app store, and keep your computer clean.

Three years ago, there was no such thing as an app store as we know them today. Apple invented the market and the industry in general has focused on growing it, not securing it. Now we are seeing how the system is being exploited and we'll see steps taken to secure the market and protect consumers. Apple needs to do a better job to vet the worthless apps, but when it does its hounded as being too restrictive and closed. We don't need 200+ apps if most of them are worthless and even worse, questionable. Sadly right now marketing is leading the charge and Apple and Android are flaunting the sheer number of apps and not the quality therein. There needs to be a better system, but its all under-developed now and it will take time to become robust. The risk is even greater with Android Apps that go through no vetting process.