A few weeks ago the online 'hacktivist' group Anonymous and members from the now-defunct Lulz Security joined forces under the AntiSec operation (short for anti-security), declaring war against governments and giant corporations in the name of the public good – whether you agree with their ways or not is another question. The rogue group has been busy hitting several companies and even the Arizona Department of Public Safety... their latest target: Apple Inc.
AntiSec posted a message on Twitter claiming they had gained access to private data from an Apple server. To back their claims up, the group posted the usernames and passwords for 27 root and admin accounts from the users table in a MySQL database. The breached server is used by the Cupertino giant to conduct technical support follow-up surveys, and according to early reports it doesn't seem that any customer data was compromised.
Apparently the group was just proving that Apple could be a target, too. "But don't worry," the twitter posting reads, "we are busy elsewhere." While AntiSec's latest attack on Apple seems relatively benign, 9to5Mac notes that previous postings have claimed a more serious threat on iCloud – though such claims haven't been verified.
"Some weeks ago, we smashed into the iCloud with our heavy artillery Lulz Cannons [...] After mapping their internal network and thoroughly pillaging all of their servers, we grabbed all their source code and database password which we proceeded to shift silently back to our storage deck."