14 DAY TRIAL // A Massachusetts state official might get the answers from Apple many people are long expecting. Are they really covering up holes in their security platform or is the “iTunes scam” nothing more than a series of credit card credential thefts that are used to make transactions on the popular application?
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley had her credit card information stolen in what was probably a phishing expedition. The hackers made several transactions on iTunes, but when they wanted to purchase a more expensive Dell laptop, the bank announced the victim and she could put an end to the whole operation.
Because Apple's application was used to empty her bank account she considers them as being partly to blame for the unfortunate incident. I will not debate if she is right or not, but thanks to her status and her commitment to fight unlawfulness, she might be able to obtain more answers from the company in relation to the way they handle monetary operations.
Many hackers have noticed that the Cupertino-based company is slow to react to certain scenarios and that's why probably they tend to quickly spend their loot on the media store before they are discovered and stopped. There are even customers who claim that they weren't warned in any way when a cybercriminal changed their shipping address, but there is also the other situation where credit card credentials are stolen and used on different websites.
In the second case, Apple should not be held responsible just because funds obtained from phishing attacks were spent on their products. It is true that they should make improvements on the way they handle customer support, especially when it comes to illegal payments, but also people should not be so hasty to make accusations as seen in many circumstances.
Coakley highly supports the fight against piracy and data protection legislation so she might be the one able to get further answers regarding the iTunes hacks which have raised so much controversy in the past year.