Apple Issues Weak Statement On App Store Hacking

6 Jul 2010 | 6 Comments

Over the weekend, reports started showing up revealing the iTunes App Store had been hacked. The hack seemed to be on 2 levels. Someone hacked into people’s iTunes account and purchased applications without their consent. The goal was to buy a bunch of apps from a developer named Thuat Nguyen in order to help his apps rank in the top of their category.
Apple kinda fixed it by removing Thuat Nguyen’s apps from the App Store. Today the company issued an official statement:

The developer Thuat Nguyen and his apps were removed from the App Store for violating the developer Program License Agreement, including fraudulent purchase patterns.
Developers

do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded.
If your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and issuing a chargeback for any unauthorized transactions. We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately. For more information on best practices for password security visit http://www.apple.com/support/itunes.

Did Apple actually fix anything? Not really, and that’s what bothering me here. Apple doesn’t admit being responsible for people hacking into your account. Basically Apple is saying that you’re on your own and if you have a problem you should get in touch with your credit company.
Apple’s apathy has been pretty obvious lately. If you thought Apple cared about you as a customer, the way they handled the iPhone antenna issue and these App Store hacks might make you change your mind.