ITunes Store To Receive Security Makeover

Apple is in the news this week about the new security measures it will be implementing in the wildly popular iTunes store. Granted, this is not a major security upgrade, but it does help to prevent the kind of security holes that have been recently exposed.

This all began when a Vietnamese app developer named Thuat Nguyen's apps covered 42 of the top 50 apps in the app store. This raised a few red flags, especially after people commented on the apps that they never purchased them. After some investigating, Apple determined that Nguyen had obtained account information from 400 accounts with stored credit card information and had used them to purchase his apps from the App Store. He then used these accounts to purchase his apps, driving up sales and his revenue.

In order to combat this type of security breach, iTunes will now require an extra step be taken by its customers. On accounts with saved credit card information, customers will need to enter their CCV code from the back of their card more frequently. That's it. Admittedly, this is not a full security overhaul, but the truth is that that would be unnecessary. The "hacked" accounts are more than likely victims of fishing attacks, as Apple has stated that their servers were unaffected by any kind of security breach.

Overall, the damage caused by this problem was minimal (assuming you are not one of the 400 accounts that were targeted). 400 accounts out of 150 million comes to roughly 0.0003% of accounts worldwide. This coupled with the fact that Nguyen and his apps have been banned from the App Store makes this a fairly open and shut case. For anyone who was affected by this fraud, Apple recommends that you contact your credit issuing agency about canceling your card and issuing a charge back for unauthorized transactions.