back to article Hiccups in Apple's iCloud after yesterday's hack of hapless hack

Users of Apple's iTunes and other cloud services reported a number of hiccups in normal service this morning, a day after an iCloud account hack on hapless WiReD journo Matt Honan made headlines. Honan's account was accessed by hacker Phobia – who pried it open by going from call centre operator to call centre operator, …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So...in short, apple won't tell it's customers what's going on with their accounts because they gave a hacker info about someones account.

    Too much or not enough....... somewhere in the middle would be fine.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Hmmm

      Looks like it is the proverbial Apple bashing time again.

      Oh the look of smugness on the faces of all those fandroids, but little do they know of the amount of malware available in the Play Store.

      Let's be realistic here, this is a social engineering hack, not a bit of malware. Credit to Apple for reviewing it and looking at ways of prevention, even if it means going off line for a bit.

      Part of me wonders though, if this is a sensationalist set up, a way to get a story out? Matt Honan is now talk of the town. Maybe start there? Is this a set up?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Re: Hmmm

        Who said anything about malware? Fact is someone bypassed Apples security procedures with scarily little information and gained full access to an account. Further to that, the Apple bit is not even a hack but a blag!!

      2. nsld
        FAIL

        Re: Hmmm

        "Let's be realistic here, this is a social engineering hack, not a bit of malware. Credit to Apple for reviewing it and looking at ways of prevention, even if it means going off line for a bit."

        Really, so to deal with a meatsack failure in a call centre they take the service offline?

        What a load of complete and total unmitigated bollocks of the highest order.

        No wonder you posted anonymously, even the other fuckwitts at whichever PR firm you work for would be pointing and laughing at you.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Ah yes, the Fandroid response,

      Have a dig at Apple, make a few derogatory remarks, attempt a smug look, chuckle in the corner, point the finger,

      BUT JUST REMEMBER THIS

      Your android phone is calling premium rate numbers, sending text messages to all sorts of numbers.... And you don't even know about it because it is the embedded malware in that app you downloaded from the play store.

      But hey isn't it great to be open source! Oops I forgot, the door is begining to close with JB!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Fandroid attitudes

      I apologise for the re-post but I have had to add a detail to my formula. (amended)

      There are four prerequisites to owning an Android phone

      1. Lack of cash

      2. Immaturity

      3. Lack of social education

      4. Herd mentality

      These 4 items put into a formula give the reason why the Fandroid acts and posts and downvotes the way he does.

      There is also some Pavlovian conditioning involved, namely the herd instinct whereby the word Apple causes intense anxiety, hot flushes, and sweating in the Fandroid.

      The formula, LC x (I x LSE) x HM = E

      E is of course Envy.

      I have proved my point.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Fandroid attitudes

        Apple users report some issues with their App Store / iCloud and Apple being Apple don't really tell anyone anything.

        Obviously it is some malware infect "fandroid" plot to discredit the divine Apple.

        The only thing worse than those that attack Apple over every little thing (rightly or wrongly) are those that blindly protect them in everything and/or try and turn any criticism into an attack on Android.

        What is it about Apple that people want to treat them like a religion? Both the haters & the worshippers; there is less fanaticism in most actual religious debates!

      2. Pooka
        FAIL

        Re: Fandroid attitudes

        "I apologise for the re-post but I have had to add a detail to my formula. (amended)

        There are four prerequisites to owning an Android phone

        1. Lack of cash

        2. Immaturity

        3. Lack of social education

        4. Herd mentality

        These 4 items put into a formula give the reason why the Fandroid acts and posts and downvotes the way he does.

        There is also some Pavlovian conditioning involved, namely the herd instinct whereby the word Apple causes intense anxiety, hot flushes, and sweating in the Fandroid.

        The formula, LC x (I x LSE) x HM = E

        E is of course Envy.

        I have proved my point."

        I'm hoping that the four points you raised above are you being... ironic, or maybe sarcastic (backed up by being an anonymous poster), but instead you've come across as a blithering idiot.

        I'm not a "fandroid", however I use an Android phone (One X, as it happens), so point 1 (lack of money) is not an issue - I could've got the iphone cheaper but I chose not to. As to point 2, how can you claim "immaturity" as a reason for not getting an Apple phone? I looked at all available options and chose the one that suited me best at the time, and yes, I did look at the iShiny and considered that when I was looking at my upgrade. Points 3 and 4 are contradictory - from what you're saying I'm not socially educated because I don't have iPhone, and I follow the herd mentallity - surely the herd are all the socially un-educated because they are generally not making a personal choice, just going with whatever the OMGShiny! that Apple are selling this time....

        Of course, if you forgot the sarcasm tags, I do apologise, but until I can find evidence contrary to this point I'm going to settle on the fact you're a fully paid up member of the iCult-of-shinyness.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Big endians vs little endians

      Swift says a pox on all your houses

  2. MyronC

    "after loose lipped."

    Loose lipped what? What? Don't leave us hanging man!

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Yeah this article was cut short. Was expecting a CARRIER LOST message...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    "though tight-lipped Apple naturally didn't comment"

    Actually they did comment, maybe El Reg missed it, which is odd given how Apple Support Forums are so closely followed.

    But here you go, FYI: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-confirms-it-has-suspended-over-the-phone-appleid-password-resets/

    As for the hicupps, just updated a bunch of apps and none to report here.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No Problem...

    Just don't use iTunes go and use one of the other app stores... Oh right.

    Never mind.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No Problem...

      Yawn.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Alien

      Re: No Problem...

      Please AC enlighten us which other app stores you have in mind.

      Let's take Android: which alternative app store hosts the same range of apps as Google Play? When that gets stuck (or suffers a month long failure) where else can you find the same apps?

      The closest I know is Amazon's Appstore, but that only hosts about 35K apps compared to Google Play's 500K. Plus it's still US only.

      Looking forward to your answer.

      1. Chet Mannly

        Re: No Problem...

        "Let's take Android: which alternative app store hosts the same range of apps as Google Play? When that gets stuck (or suffers a month long failure) where else can you find the same apps?"

        Let's take IOS which alternative app store for *this* failure - oh right there isn't one. Somehow you think that not having any alternative is preferable to having smaller alternatives.

        Oh and the "month long failure" you misleadingly linked to regards DRM being disabled - it isn't stopping Android phones downloading apps (unlike iOS right now).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          FAIL

          Wrong @Chet

          Read that story, it took a month before Google took action and disabled DRM, during which time paid apps that users downloaded got broken without explanation. There's even a very long thread of irate developers to document it.

          That's the real zinger. After that I just laugh at any claims you make about Android's useless "alternatives".

  5. David 45

    The ultimate answer to the universe and life in general.

    Don't use any product made or supported by Arrogant Apple. There you are - simple, eh? Fixed in a jiffy.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The ultimate answer to the universe and life in general.

      A Fandroid who is a Fandroid because he cannot afford an iPhone.

      With a chip on his shoulder and a jealous glint in his eye as he picks up his Hero and cries good bye.

      1. Paratrooping Parrot
        Mushroom

        Re: The ultimate answer to the universe and life in general.

        Even though I could probably afford an iPhone and other Apple products, I am deliberately avoiding them. After years of being bullied by Microsoft, they have themselves become bullies just like Microsoft. For that reason, I am out.

        I will consider my next phone once this current phone dies.

  6. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Obligatory response

    Typical user error - he's obviously holding it wrong.

  7. Slap
    FAIL

    If this hadn't happened to a tech journo, but an ordinary mortal...

    ... Then we wouldn't have seen anything about this.

    Sure security policies by apple, amazon and the like need to be investigated after this, but ultimately the blame of data loss lies with the hack himself. By his own admission he had no local physical backup of his data - major fail.

    Then, quite embarssingly, as a tech journo he had to take his laptop to apple to find out if anything could be recovered. Seriously, for any suppposedly tech minded person scanning a functional hard disk, be it rust or SSD, for files, even if the the directory is over written, is child's play with the facilities available.

    I'd be surprised if this guy is ever taken seriously in tech hack circles ever again.

    1. Handle This

      Re: If this hadn't happened to a tech journo, but an ordinary mortal...

      "Sure security policies by apple, amazon and the like need to be investigated after this . . . "

      Well, it turns out they really should have been investigated and vetted BEFORE this happened. Try as you might, the story really is the apparently rather easy ability of someone without real knowledge of an individual or account to get where this hacker got, primarily by being stubborn. Placing the blame on the journalist's difficulty in replacing data because is doesn't fit one's idea of Apple saintliness is not much of a contribution to the discussion, which I think should be on the loss of data in the first place. I like the Apple products a lot, though I don't like the premium (my family all have iPhones, though old ones now). This should not blind one, however, to either the original problem or the rather unhelpful response action given by Apple in this instance. (And this appears to be only the latest of instances of the latter event.)

      Admittedly, I don't have a bunch of answers to help Apple here, and not enough details, but at least I think I see the proper pressure point. If we intend to make serious comments, let's keep our eye on the ball.

  8. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    Apple has solved the problems reported by the forums!

    ... by closing the forums..

    At least, that's what it tells me right now - "we are busy updating Apple Support Communities for you and will be back shortly"

  9. biznuge
    Stop

    OS Agnostic

    BRIAN: Are you the Judean People's Front?

    REG: Fuck off!

    BRIAN: What?

    REG: Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea! Judean People's Front. Cawk.

    FRANCIS: Wankers.

    This whole Apple/Android thing is getting fucking ridiculous... You all have shiny shit containing billions of tiny transistors in your pockets, all put there by people who want you to licence their shit.

    I use smoke signals. feckin erses.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like