Hackers in China have used stolen Apple IDs to make off with cash from customers’ Alipay and Tencent accounts, two popular Chinese mobile payments service.
In a post on Weibo, Alipay said that it has contacted Apple to determine the exact details of the breach. It also warned that users who have linked their Apple IDs to mobile payment services should lower their transaction limits. Tencent has also gotten in contact with Apple.
Tim Cook is in China, visiting Shanghai to promote Apple Watch, pay a trip to one of one of the local Apple Stores, and meet with developers and Apple users.
Cook marked the trip by posting on his official Weibo account, the microblogging account that acts as China’s version of Twitter. While he is upbeat about meeting with Chinese fans, however, the visit comes at a tough time — with a burgeoning trade war with the U.S. and questionable claims about Chinese spy chips allegedly used by Apple.
One of the sources named in Bloomberg‘s recent report on alleged Chinese spy chips in motherboards used by Apple and other companies has cast doubts on the story.
Speaking on a podcast published this week, security researcher Joe Fitzpatrick said that the hardware implant approach described “doesn’t make sense.”
There are plenty of stories published about Apple that I’m sure it would rather not floating around the internet. But when it is accused of having had its motherboards — along with those used by dozens of other companies — breached by Chinese spy chips, it springs into action.
That’s what Apple did over the weekend when it told Congress that there is absolutely no evidence that it has been the victim of a sophisticated attack on its supply chain. This is what had been alleged in a recent article by Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
The Department of Homeland Security says that it believes Apple’s denial of claims that Chinese spies had inserted malicious chips into its computer system. Based on current evidence, at least.
The U.K.’s national cyber security agency has chimed in with its assessment of the recent report claiming that multiple companies — including Apple — had malicious chips inserted by Chinese spies into their computer systems.
Both Amazon and Apple, two of the companies named, have so far denied the claims. Now Britain’s National Cyber Security Center has said there’s no reason to doubt them.
Despite Apple’s denials, it’s “highly plausible” that secret spy chips could have been planted on the company’s servers, said a former Apple hardware engineer.
Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, who spent nearly six years at Apple helping build several generations of iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch, said spy chips could have been slipped into the design of servers used for Apple’s iCloud services, as alleged in a Bloomberg Businessweek story.
“With my knowledge of hardware design, it’s entirely plausible to me,” she said. “It’s very highly plausible to me, and that’s scary if you think about it.”
Update: Apple and Amazon both issued lengthy statements Thursday concerning the Chinese spy chip allegations. We updated this post to include those statements.
Apple denies that Chinese spy chips infiltrated its iCloud server hardware after claims that motherboards used by Apple, Amazon and dozens of other tech companies contained microchips used for surveillance purposes.
Cupertino insists the story is “wrong and misinformed.” Apple also says Chinese spying had nothing to do with the company’s decision to cut ties with a supplier.
Tim Cook went on the offensive toward competing companies like Amazon and Google in a new interview tonight on privacy.
Appearing on Vice News Tonight on HBO, the Apple CEO was asked if his company’s stance on privacy is stopping Siri from becoming more competitive with Alexa. Cook pushed back saying any company that says it needs all your data to make its service better is telling you a “bunch of bunk.”
Florida Senator Marco Rubio isn’t happy about Mac apps. Specifically, he’s not happy about Mac apps stealing user data and sending it off to remote servers in China. And he’s perhaps most unhappy that Apple failed to act sooner than it did.
In a letter sent Wednesday, Rubio voiced his complaints to Apple CEO Tim Cook. In it, he asked why Apple failed to immediately act upon information it had about an app, Adware Doctor, which was behaving in a malicious manner.
Apple’s latest iPhone lineup is its most expensive yet, with prices starting at $999 for the iPhone XS and $1,099 for the iPhone XS Max. But Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t see a problem with that.
In an interview with Good Morning America this week, Cook again defended Apple’s price tags, talked about Apple Watch Series 4, and explained why some devices have avoided price hikes amidst America’s trade war with China.
The Trump administration is expected to spare three Apple products from the next round of tariffs, but escalating conflicts with China could still be a costly problem for the tech giant should a full-blown trade war ensue.
Bloomberg news, siting five unidentified sources, said a product code that covers the Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod smart speaker, is not listed among some $200 billion in Chinese products subject to a new 10 percent tariff expected to be announced later this week.
Trump’s latest round of proposed tariffs will negatively impact Apple’s revenues but according to some numbers crunched by an Apple analyst, investors shouldn’t worry about the company’s profits being hit too hard.
Apple revealed last week that some of the proposed tariffs would hurt the profitability of Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod and Apple Pencil. Price increases would be passed on to consumers, however, it probably won’t be more than a 20% jump.
Apple may have just passed the $1 trillion mark, but it’s still looking for ways to save money. In its efforts to keep manufacturing costs as low as possible, the company is supposedly shifting production for its various devices from Taiwanese suppliers to Chinese ones.
Apple has pulled a massive 25,000 apps from its Chinese App Store following state media complaints about the company. At least 4,000 of these were tagged with the word “gambling,” which is illegal in China outside of state-sanctioned lotteries.
“Gambling apps are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China,” Apple said in a statement. “We have already removed many apps and developers for trying to distribute illegal gambling apps on our App Store, and we are vigilant in our efforts to find these and stop them from being on the App Store.”
Apple is working with Chinese telecoms firms to find a way to cut down the amount of iMessage spam customers in the country receive.
Apple has recently been under fire by state-controlled Chinese media for supposedly allowing users to be bombarded with illicit content through its iMessages. These are said to include gambling ads (illegal in China, aside from state lotteries), pornography, and counterfeit goods.
Apple may have just reported yet another record quarter, but there’s a potential dark cloud lurking on the horizon in the form of the impending China trade war.
Not only has Tim Cook been outspoken about China being Apple’s future biggest market, but Apple also relies on China for the majority of its manufacturing. In other words, Apple has a problem — and in this case it’s a problem that could be passed onto you, the customer.
As if the threat of the burgeoning trade war between the U.S. and China wasn’t enough, Apple has another problem in the world’s most populous country.
State-controlled media in China is accusing Apple of failing to act to block content that is pornographic, gambling-focused, or intended to promote the selling of counterfeit products. At least five news agencies in the country have jumped on the accusations.
When Apple unveils its latest earnings report Tuesday, some analysts think the numbers may be even better than expected.
Q3 is usually Apple’s weakest quarter of the year as the iPhone sales cycle starts to come to an end. However, this week’s call may hold a number of surprises and hints about the 2018 iPhone lineup as Apple gives investors guidance on next quarter. As usual, Cult of Mac will liveblog the entire call with all the pithy analysis we can muster.
We’ll be watching for these key details in the report (and so should you).
Tim Cook was reportedly assured that the iPhone wouldn’t been among the items to be hit with an import tariff as part of the United States’ burgeoning trade war with China.
However, according to a new report, it may wind up being hit with two sets of charges: one on iPhones imported from China, and another tax levied in China itself. Ouch!
iPhone users in China are reportedly being bombarded with iMessage spam, many of them promoting illegal gambling.
Much of the iMessage spam in question links to WeChat account or gambling websites. Gambling is illegal in China, with the exception of two state-sanctioned lotteries.
One of the most important components of the 2018 iPhone could be produced by a company with very strong ties to the Chinese government.
BOE Technology Group already makes some LCD screens for Apple, but also wants to manufacture OLED displays used in flagship iPhone models.
Now that rival smartphone makers have had some time to follow in Apple’s footsteps, you don’t have to spend $1,000 on an iPhone X to enjoy features like facial recognition and an edge-to-edge screen. For instance, this handset looks almost exactly like Apple’s latest flagship, and yet it costs just $100.
But don’t be fooled by its pretty face. This unashamed iPhone X clone is as ugly as sin under the surface, and its poor excuse for security is even scarier.
Apple might have been reassured at the news that tariffs in the U.S.’s trade war with China wouldn’t hurt the iPhone and the iPad — but apparently nobody said anything about the Apple Watch.
According to a new report, the latest round of U.S. tariffs on approximately $200 billion goods imported from China could hit Apple’s wearable device.
When Apple moved iCloud data for Chinese customers over to Apple partner Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry earlier this year, a lot of privacy advocates were worried about the implications.
They might have even more cause for concern now, as Apple’s iCloud data in the country — including users’ emails and text messages — is now being stored by a division of the state-owned China Telecom. Apple confirmed the change late on Tuesday.