back to article Apple evacuates European HQ after bomb threat

Apple's European headquarters in Cork, Ireland were evacuated this morning after threatening emails were received by the company. Up to 4,000 workers were rushed out of the premises in Hollyhill and Lavitts Quay, reported the Irish Independent, which said it believed that the Model Farm Road location was also evacuated as a …

  1. TheVogon

    Probably someone panicked about another overheating iPhone battery....

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/29/iphone_6s_plus_overheat/

  2. x 7

    dry runs to see how the police react to a scare

    next one may well be the real thing. What other high-tech sites are there in Dublin? If I were running one of those I'd be upping security

    1. Mage Silver badge

      Dublin?

      Well, eBay, PayPal, IBM. Facebook, Microsoft etc are in Dublin. Maybe Google too.

      Intel are in Shannon and Leixlip.

      Apple are in Cork, the #2 city.

      Analog Devices are in Limerick and Cork

      Uber (are they tech at all? or a hackney service) are in Limerick (approx #3 city, though Galway might be #3 or #4 depending how you measure)

      Dell moved from Limerick to Poland for bigger grants.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: Dublin?

        Cork, the #2 city.

        Shirley #1 city, in the People's Republic of Cork

    2. Antonius_Prime

      Stop using Apple Maps, will ya?

      As any Corkonian would tell you:

      "Cork isn't Dublin ya langer!"

    3. Slx

      Upping security against what though? A muppet with an email account?

      There was obviously nothing there. Just some idiot causing major stress and inconvenience for a whole load of staff this morning.

      Also, Cork is 260km away from Dublin, on the South Coast of Ireland.

  3. Rich 11

    A spokesperson for the Garda Síochána told the Independent that no army bomb disposal team had been called to the scene.

    For budgetary reasons?

    Perhaps now Apple will think it's worth paying their taxes.

    1. web_bod
      WTF?

      Re: For budgetary reasons?

      ... or maybe because a bomb *disposal* team is only useful when you've actually managed to find a bomb - not much use on hoaxes.

  4. werdsmith Silver badge

    Blue Monday, apparently the saddest day of the year today, though I can't say I've noticed.

    So, who fancied a day off and thought this was a good way to do it?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You haven't noticed because it doesn't exist. It was made up by Sky in 2005 to promote their travel agency.

      http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/blue-monday-most-depressing-day-or-pr-stunt-1.2194891

  5. JaitcH
    FAIL

    Anything, buy anything ...

    to keep the corporate name on the public's mind.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Anything, buy anything ...

      It wasn't really the threat of a bomb, it was the threat of paying taxes which really caused the panic evacuation.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Anything, buy anything ...

        "it was the threat of paying taxes which really caused the panic evacuation."

        It's widely known that Apple have got a special deal which results in them barely paying taxes (in Ireland and elsewhere).

        As a logical consequence surely they should barely get any police response (in Ireland and elsewhere).

  6. JoshOvki
    Trollface

    "Up to 4,000 workers"

    to it could have been the 3 people that work there then...

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: "Up to 4,000 workers"

      3,997 currently working on abroad at their Cayman Islands Apple Store and are paid wages from Ireland into a Dutch bank account.

    2. Slx

      Re: "Up to 4,000 workers"

      Apple's been in Cork since 1980 and currently employs over 4000 people there. It's a pretty seriously significant site.

  7. Raccoon
    Joke

    Poor pun in 3,2,1...

    Do you think they misheard when they were threatened with a tax?

  8. Chris Gray 1
    Black Helicopters

    GCHQ/NSA?

    You lot aren't paranoid enough!

    Evacuation of the premesis of a major technology player is the perfect opportunity for the various spy agencies to go in and plant all sorts of devices, and to get brief access to code repositories, etc.

    1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

      Re: GCHQ/NSA?

      <tinfoil_hat_time location="firmly on noggin">

      Thought it was only paranoia if it wasn't actually true...

      Seems exactly the kind of stunt these guys would pull to gain unfettered access for a while. Especially since Apple won't publicly play ball on end-to-end encryption.

      </tinfoil_hat_time>

      So how's that dragnet working out, lads? Since the hoax was sent by email, isn't this exactly the naughtiness your all-encompassing bulk collection programmes are meant to be flagging? Or will it be flagged some time next month when you've finally had enough time to filter the kilobyte of wheat from petabytes of chaff...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: GCHQ/NSA?

      They don't turn off their security cameras during an evacuation, so they couldn't go in without any chance of detection.

      Also, Apple makes iMacs at Cork. You can't change the hardware manufacturing to plant a bug in each one that comes off the line even with physical access for half a day, the best you could do is planting a bug in the ones that were on the line at the time. But it would be MUCH easier to intercept the shipment once it leaves Apple and you can target the particular one ISIS is buying or whatever to bug, rather than trying to do them en masse in a shotgun approach hoping to get the one that matters.

      Anyway, a software bug is better, as it can be later removed and leave no trace. Surely the NSA has OS X zero days to go along with its zero days on every other OS known to man.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: GCHQ/NSA?

        "You can't change the hardware manufacturing to plant a bug in each one that comes off the line even with physical access for half a day,"

        Do the processors in these iMacs have functionality equivalent to Intel vPro (disabled or otherwise)?

        If it does, then you don't need any extra hardware to "plant a bug in each one that comes off the line".

        In fact even without something like vPro you can surely plant a bug in each one simply by making a few suitable changes to the firmware, no? I'm sure it's not beyond the wit of the NSA and friends.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: GCHQ/NSA?

          Yes, but you don't need to call in a fake bomb threat and get physical access to the factory to plant a bug in the firmware. Apple isn't writing iMac firmware at the factory.

  9. N2
    Trollface

    Just like their software...

    No army bomb disposal team had been called to the scene.

    We have a problem but were not going to do anything about it

    1. Slx

      Re: Just like their software...

      Possibly because they'd figured out that it was a hoax and there was nothing to 'dispose' of.

  10. VinceH
    Joke

    Meanwhile, there was a sudden increase in the day's sales in trendy coffee shops nearby, shortly after a brief meeting amongst the owners, which ended with a burner phone owned by one being thrown into the river.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Moonship takes off on the 28th

    They will all be safe and sound there, the staff even getting a moonwalk reward holiday at 5 years isolation.

    Who'd have thunk they could patent the moon, avoid 100% of all taxes and get to live in an email/hoax free environment.

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