In the wake of Wired reporter Mat Honan's epic digital security meltdown last weekend, it seems that both Apple and Amazon are beefing up their own security to make sure such a thing can't happen again.
Wired is reporting that Apple has instructed tech support staff to stop processing Apple ID password changes requested over the telephone following last weekend's security gaffe with tech journalist Mat Honan.
That incident resulted in a hacker using the last four digits of Honan's credit card -- which was pulled from Amazon.com -- to gain access to the reporter's iCloud account simply by calling Apple support. The result was nearly all of Honan's digital life erased within the space of an hour, including having his iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air remotely wiped by the hacker.
According to Apple employees, Cupertino has moved swiftly to avoid further incidents with a freeze on password resets via telephone, which are expected to last "at least 24 hours."
"The employee speculated that the freeze was put in place to give Apple more time to determine what security policies needed to be changed, if any," the report noted.
Amazon appears to have already quietly patched its own customer service security hole on Tuesday, which allowed anyone with a customer's name, email and mailing address to gain control of accounts there.
Apple has yet to publicly comment on the security issue, but appears to be weighing its options as part of the telephone password reset freeze.
“Right now, our system does not allow us to reset passwords,” an Apple representative told Wired. “I don’t know why.”
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(Image courtesy of Wired)
