Cases of hacking and digital information theft is currently the buzz of Apple blogs and tech news. Few weeks ago, we heard the news about the Russian hacker that penetrated the in-app purchases in App Store. Now it’s a case of AppleCare iCloud password reset that caused a total swiped of journalist’s digital identity.
Is it still safe to store information on iCloud or invest on another cloud storage and syncing despite its disadvantages and security issues? It’s a scary situation, and for those of you who have been using Apple iCloud service, probably you have reset your password with knots of numbers, padlocks of capital letters and bolts of alphanumeric password for protection.
Who could have thought this would happen? Wired’s journalist Mat Honan was caught by surprised to with his ‘very scary news’ over the weekend. First, his iCloud account was hacked, then his Twitter account and in return, Gizomdo’s Twitter account. Honan used to work at Gizmodo. His Twitter profile is connected to his iCloud email and with a simple Twitter password reset gave access to hackers on other accounts. The data were remotely wiped out.
With pieces of the puzzle collected, Honan figured it out.
“I know how it was done now. Confirmed with both the hacker and Apple. It wasn?t password related. They got in via Apple tech support and some clever social engineering that let them bypass security questions. Apple has my Macbook and is trying to recover the data. I?m back in all my accounts that I know I was locked out of. Still trying to figure out where else they were.”
This is scary stuff. And maybe, that person can’t think of anything else but to destroy someone else’s digital life. This is a warning for us who use the iCloud service. Make sure you set the safest password.
What’s a safe password? Something you can’t remember that requires you to write it that down on a piece of paper or notepad. Apple should also set a more secure password reset for Apple Care that is ‘hacker-proof.’
What can you do to protect your files?
[via Emptyage]
