Apple admitted yesterday that a “small number” of Chinese users’ Apple IDs were compromised. These users subsequently had fraudulent purchases made from their accounts.
Reports earlier claimed that “several hundred” Chinese users had their IDs stolen. All of the accounts involved suffered security breaches because of phishing swindles, with fraudsters getting hold of people’s sensitive data via misleading links or emails.
The users who were affected failed to activate two-step authentication on their Apple accounts.
According to an individual familiar with the matter, Apple failed to find any proof of a breach in its own systems during an investigation of the issue.
In a statement, the company strongly advised all its clients to activate two-factor authentication because that would prevent outsiders from gaining unauthorised access to their Apple accounts.
The statement continued: “We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers by these phishing scams. We are proactively identifying suspicious activities and reaching out to affected customers.”
Earlier in October, the Cupertino-based firm flatly denied rumours of another, even bigger, hacking attempt and claimed that it failed to find any evidence of Chinese spy chips being fitted to some of its devices.
In other Apple news, the firm decided to redesign its unloved bagel emoji. A social media storm erupted after the company released an emoji showing a rather dull-looking bagel with no cream cheese or any other type of spread.
The reaction from the internet community was a resounding “no”, with numerous users expressing their disappointment at the bland design on social media. Even Philadelphia cream cheese entered the debate by launching a petition and a poll on Twitter.
Apple finally succumbed and replaced the much-maligned emoji with one showing a more substantial bagel – complete with cream cheese, and ready to compete with popular bagel designs from Twitter, Samsung, Microsoft and Google.