Hackers in “the cloud” obliterate man’s iPhone, iPad and MacBook data

(NATIONAL) — So, think tying all of your communication devices together within the cloud is simply a swell thing to do?

Ask Mat Honan. He found in regards to the dangerous side of Apple’s iCloud, the service that brings a number services – email, calendar, contacts, ‘Find My iPhone” and cloud storage – and stores them behind a single username and password.

Very convenient writes Adrian Kingsley-Hughes in Forbes but when that username and password falls into the incorrect hands, you’ll find yourself in no time in a global of pain.

That’s what they initially thought happened to Honan a former journalist for Gizmodo. Before the hackers gained access to his Twitter account and that of Gizmodo, the hackers first gained access to his iCloud account, where they caused irrevocable havoc.

The hackers, once inside were ready to wipe out the entire data on his iPhone, iPad after which they remote burnt up everything on his MacBook computer and eventually word he still couldn’t get into his Gmail account.

Apple tells him “that the remote wipe is probably going irrecoverable without serious forensics. Because I’m a jerk who doesn’t back up data, I’ve lost at greater than a year’s worth of photos, emails, documents, and more. And, really, who knows what else.”

And what’s truly fascinating about this situation is that on the time it happened it was assumed the hackers had used “bruteforcing” – trying passwords until they got lucky and located the best one – nevertheless it seems, says Kingsley-Hughes that Apple gave the hackers access to his iCloud account.

“I know the way it was done now. Confirmed with both the hacker and Apple. It wasn’t password related. They got in via Apple tech support and a few clever social engineering that allow them bypass security questions,” writes Kingsley-Hughes.

“Social engineering” he says is a complicated word for tricking the individual at the other end to do what you will want by making them believe that they’re you.

And the dreaded thing is, nothing can protect you from this type of targeted attack.

Read the whole tale about Mat Honan’s nightmare here

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