iCloud Could Hacking Tarnish Apple's Image

Apple AAPL reportedly allowed a hacker to take over a journalist's iCloud account by deceiving the company's tech support team. What affect will this have on the future of Apple's success? In June, Apple changed its website to show that Macs are not impervious to computer threats such as viruses. While it is impossible for a Mac to contract a virus that was built for a Microsoft MSFT Windows machine, it is wholly possible for someone to engineer a Mac-specific Trojan, as well as other forms of malicious software. Last February, The Wall Street Journal discovered that Google GOOG had found a way to bypass the security features of Apple's Safari web browser to track the sites that users visit. While the blame was ultimately placed on Google, the situation did not bode well for Apple either, as this was not the first time that Safari was found to have holes in its security. Apple has repeatedly released patches and updates to fix the various security issues that plague iOS. Despite these concerns, one researcher found that iOS is still more secure than Android. That might change after the researcher reads about this story from Mac Rumors, which recounts the nightmare of Wired reporter Mat Honan, whose iCloud account was hacked. "I know how it was done now," Honan wrote on his blog. "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." This situation could cause irreparable harm to Apple, which touts iCloud as an "automatic and effortless" offer that integrates into users' apps. The iPhone maker heavily promotes the fact that iCloud allows users to backup and restore their data. Along with those perks, iCloud also enables users to remotely wipe their devices in the event that their computer, tablet, or smartphone is stolen. With this feature, the hacker attempted to delete all of Honan's data. On his personal blog, Honan said that Apple is attempting to recover the data from his MacBook but he will not know the outcome until this afternoon. Follow me @LouisBedigianBZ