Apple’s developer portal has been hacked on Thursday. An intruder managed to obtain some personal info from registered developers, Apple has announced.
“Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed,”
Apple has taken the portal down and promised a complete overhaul of its developer systems, including updating the server software and rebuilding the entire database.
A mere day after Apple confirmed that its developer portal had been broken into, a Turkish man named Ibrahim Balic has (bravely?) fessed-up, claiming all responsibility. Apple has yet to comment on the situation, and we’re not even sure it will, at least publicly.
If Balic is in fact the source of the attack, Apple might wish to take actions other than simply confirming that he was in fact at the heart of things.
To help back up Balic’s claims, he uploaded a video to YouTube that proved that he could gain information from Apple’s database; at the forefront, user IDs. This video has since been taken down (allegedly not by him), likely as the result of a request by Apple, as the video clearly displayed confidential information.
According to Balic, his intention was never to cause harm, or make off with people’s data. Instead, he said that he was trying to prove to Apple about how vulnerable its system is. Over the course of a few days, he submitted 13 separate bugs to Apple, and not long after, the entire developer network was taken down.