Cloud Going To Cause 'horrible Problems'

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

Interesting views on 'the Cloud'. Can't say I disagree.

 

Wozniak says the cloud is going to cause us ‘horrible problems’

 

Sanuk!

[Coss]

Yes I agree too.

 

Th simple fact that 'all my stuff belong Apple' is enough to keep me from using iCloud to store anything.

 

I do find the ability to sync multiple iPhone, iPad and Macs - calendars, mail, contacts, bookmarks etc etc etc seamlessly, very useful.

 

But the data remains on the devices.

 

Storing mission critical data on an American server, chills my blood. What if some knee-jerk, jerk, decides Laos cannot be good, my life goes down the drain when they put 'net sanctions in place.

 

Mind you iCloud is not alone in this, but even with Gmail, I keep the content local too.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"Mind you iCloud is not alone in this"

 

Right, I think this guy's comments were in regards to general 'Cloud' rather than iCloud specifically.

 

The idea of using apps running on servers over the Internet also strikes me as odd. It's like going backwards in time to server/workstation days. At the time that approach made sense, but computers are more than capable of running any apps your average person would / needs to use.

 

Sanuk!

[Coss]

It makes sense from the software provider's point of view, you can control the app version/features/distribution keeping piracy to a minimum and maintenance is also minimized.

 

But to us, who believe in freedom above all else, the control of these things inevitably falls to Marketing people or worse.

 

BTW fartbook is doomed, you heard it here first...

 

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"But to us, who believe in freedom above all else, the control of these things inevitably falls to Marketing people or worse."

 

I think you have found the main reason for it. It is much preferable from a Sales/Marketing perspective.

 

Even version control isn't so much of an issue anymore as it is very easy to have an app check for a newer version and auto-download it if found.

 

Sanuk!

 

PS Even this entire fad of 'cloud' is mostly marketing. All cloud really is is storing data online, something that has been done for decades already. Some marketing people just put a cool name on it and pretend it is something new.

[kamui]

 

 

BTW fartbook is doomed, you heard it here first...

 

 

Yes, because it will be taken over by an even worse social network...

[pasathai1]

I am always leary of the places that want to store your data off site, prime chance to use the info once they gather enough of it.

[Mekong]

A US tech journalist was cut off from his entire digital life by attackers who tricked Apple support into re-setting his iCloud account.

 

The attack wiped Mat Honan's iPad, iPhone and Macbook and let hackers into his Gmail and Twitter accounts.

 

Mr Honan is recovering his data and regaining control of the accounts with the help of Apple and Google.

 

Commentators said the attack showed up the risk of using cloud-based messaging services.

 

Locked out

Writing on his blog, Mr Honan said he became aware of the attack when his iPhone went dead and then returned to the set-up screen. Initially he assumed it was just a software error and went to connect it to this Macbook Air to restore the data.

 

His suspicions became aroused when the laptop started and asked him for a PIN even though he had never created one on that device. He turned to his iPad and found that too had been reset.

 

Mr Honan then called Apple support using his wife's iPhone and used her laptop to sign into Gmail. The password for this had been changed and the backup sent to his iCloud account - to which he no longer had access.

 

It was this attack, said Mr Honan, that produced the rude messages that briefly appeared on the Twitter account of Gizmodo - Mr Honan's employer. The attackers got access to this account because it was linked to his personal Twitter feed.

 

Mr Honan has been able to find out exactly what happened because one of his attackers, a member of a hacking group called Clan Vv3, got in touch and told him how they did it.

 

The hackers called Apple technical support and used "social engineering" techniques to convince staff that they were Mr Honan and that the account needed to be re-set.

 

Via Gizmodo, Mr Honan has been in touch with contacts at Apple, Google and Twitter who have helped restore access to his accounts. He said Apple was investigating the incident to see how to prevent future attacks.

 

Derrick Harris at tech news site GigaOm said the attack highlighted some "hard truths" about cloud-based services.

 

Mr Harris said consumers gave up control over their digital lives when they signed for iCloud or similar services. The iCloud service co-ordinates everything a customer does on one Apple device to make it available on all their Apple devices.

 

"If we want to be part of it, we just have to keep on trusting our providers to keep us safe," he said.

 

My link

[Coss]

A US tech journalist was cut off from his entire digital life by attackers who tricked Apple support into re-setting his iCloud account.......

 

I'm interested that it's Human error here, or Human deception - c'est la vie´

 

_________________

 

Apple on Tuesday ordered its support staff to immediately stop processing AppleID password changes requested over the phone, following the

identity hacking of Wired reporter Mat Honan over the weekend, according to Apple employees.

 

An Apple worker with knowledge of the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Wired that the over-the-phone password freeze would 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 change follows similar security tightening at

Amazon, which on Tuesday closed a hole in its customer service systems that gave people the ability to gain control of a customer’s Amazon account as long as the hacker knew the name, e-mail address and mailing address of the victim.

 

Our Apple source’s information was corroborated by an Apple customer service representative, who told us Apple was halting all AppleID password resets by phone. The AppleCare representative shared that detail while Wired was attempting to replicate Honan’s hackers’ exploitation of Apple’s system for the second day. The attempt failed, and the representative said that the company was going through system-wide “maintenance updates†that prevented anyone from resetting any passwords over the phone. The rep said we should try calling back after about 24 hours, and directed us to

iforgot.apple.com to change AppleID passwords ourselves on the web instead.

 

“Right now, our system does not allow us to reset passwords,†the Apple rep told Wired. “I don’t know why.â€<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; ">

 

In an earlier attempt on Tuesday to change an AppleID password (which is the same password used to log into iCloud and iTunes), Apple customer service offered up a different response, saying that passwords could only be changed over the phone if we were able to supply a serial number for a device linked to the AppleID in question — for example, an iPhone, iPad or MacBook computer. The rep also suggested changing our AppleID password online at

appleid.apple.com or iforgot.apple.com.

 

While it’s clear that Apple is reacting to the privacy vulnerability that surfaced with the hacking of Honan’s digital identity, it’s unclear what final policy change will emerge. Apple officials declined to comment on whether permanent changes to the company’s security measures were planned.

 

On Monday, we were able to call Apple, reset AppleID passwords over the phone, and gain access to iCloud accounts by supplying AppleCare representatives with a name, e-mail address, mailing address and the last four digits of a credit card number linked to an AppleID. This is the exact same information hackers supplied Apple with on Friday to get a temporary password that gave them access to Honan’s iCloud account.

 

From there, the hackers wiped Honan’s iPhone, iPad and MacBook. They also used their access to get into Honan’s .Me email account, which gave them access to his Google account (they wiped that too), his personal Twitter account and Gizmodo’s Twitter account. Honan previously worked as a reporter at Gizmodo and, under the hackers’ control, both Twitter accounts became a platform to spout racist and homophobic invective.

 

Names with matching e-mail addresses and mailing addresses are easy enough to find on the web. Credit card numbers tied to a name can be found on many purchase receipts, and everyday millions of Americans give these valuable numbers out over the phone ordering pizzas, among other things.

 

Yesterday, Apple issued a statement noting that “we found that our own internal policies were not followed completely.†However, Wired’s internal source at Apple said that if the support representative who took the hacker’s call issued a temporary password based on an Apple ID, billing address, and the last four digits of a credit card, he or she would have “absolutely†been in compliance with Apple policy.

 

 

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-icloud-password-freeze/

 

 

[TheCorinthian]

I am always leary of the places that want to store your data off site, prime chance to use the info once they gather enough of it.

 

I imagine the rich though the same way when Carnegie gave several billion to build a library in every town.