Apple Allowed Hacker Access to User’s iCloud Account

Forbes: Over the weekend, a hacker gained access to journalist Mat Honan’s iCloud account and proceeded to wipe his iPhone, iPad and MacBook. They also deleted his Gmail account and took over his Twitter account, which also linked to Gizmodo’s Twitter account. Originally Honan assumed the hacker stole or broke his password, but that wasn’t the case. “I know how it was done now,” Honan blogged. “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.”

The incident highlights the fact that end users are depending on the good sense of tech company employees to protect them–and sometimes that system doesn’t work out so well. The Forbes article notes, “Nothing can protect you from this kind of targeted attack. You ca[n] have the best password possible, and awesome security questions, but if the hacker can convince the tech support person that they are you, they can walk past all that security.”