Apple Blocks Thuat Nguyen
Thuat Nguyen, the developer that produced Apple’s applications for their App Store is banned because some of the iTunes accounts were emptied in order to buy products from this software developer. And this would not be that spectacular if the customers did really want to buy those book apps, but they did not. These purchases were made without their permission. Two days ago, last weekend, many customers reported that their accounts are now with less than 100 dollars, 200, or even 600 dollars. One of the clients received an information from the issuer of his credit card, because also the institution found it odd that particular client bought book apps totalizing almost 600 dollars, when his usual purchases from the App Store were around 3 dollars.
Luckily, Apple banished the so-called developer, Thuat Nguyen, which is vietnamese for hacking the App Store and some of the accounts of the Apple customers. This developer managed to place their book apps in the first 50 of the applications available on App Store. Some reports say that the book apps were 40, others 41 and other reports that this developer succeeded in introducing 42 in the list with the most popular app store, in this way managing to sell more apps. It is a strong connection between the illegal purchases and this developer, because all those book apps which were bought without their true clients consent were manufactured by this software maker.
The New York Times announced on July 6 that Apple has banned this developer and all his application from the App Store. Trudy Muller, employee at Apple, says that about 400 iTunes accounts were affected, with high or low amounts of money. She refused to say whether those accounts are affected in an irreversible way, but she did say the Apple’s server, which holds data for millions of customers, including financial information were not affected by this problem. Anyway, Apple should keep in mind this problem and strengthen their capacity of protecting customers data. Also, the iTunes were not affected, nor other applications developed by other manufacturers.
After this incident, Apple declared they will bolster the security of the server which holds more than 225000 applications. More than five million of them were downloaded, according to Apple. The news appeared in The New York Times and it was released by other newspapers and magazines around the world. All the information regarding Apple is very appreciated, as well as this company. There is no news about Apple that doesn’t attract readers.
If you think that your iTunes account had been hacked, you should immediately change your password and even if you are not in the lucky shoes of those who had been hacked, it would be preferable to change the password. In fact, this procedure must be performed once in a while to protect your account from situations like this one and not only with your iTunes account, if you have one, but with all the accounts opened on various websites. This way, you will keep your personal data protected from malicious software developers and hackers. About 150 million iTunes users have iTunes account and only 400 of them were affected by this hacking intention.
Apple recommends also to block your credit card and issue another, because the card might be affected too. They don’t know exactly what data has been hacked, that’s why is very important to obey the Apple’s recommandation. The servers were not affected, but Apple in their desire to maximize the security of iTunes, asks the clients which use a computer for the first time to take extra security measures, in order to protect his or her personal information.
Mr Nguyen was not available to comment. He managed to place more than 40 of his comic book apps in the App Store on very good positions. This could not have been possible without the help of a team of hackers. Maybe an app to be in the top 50 is possible, maybe two, but not 40 out of 50. This is clearly a hacking attempt. And what do you think of those apps being bought by people which don’t even know that they bought them? These persons who tried to fraud Apple and its customers should be arrested or should give a legal answer for their actions in front of a judge.
Revenues from iTunes went up 27 percent this quarter which ended in March 2010, reaching 1.3 billion dollars. The iTunes hacking attempt remains an insignifiant compared to other electronic problems that affected large software companies and financial institutions. Apple says that the customers which were frauded should contact their credit card issuer or bank for a refund for any unauthorized transactions.
