A Really Hard Hack... – 286 days old

[ZemaTalon]

I was playing with my daughter, when my phone went dead. It then rebooted to the setup screen. This was irritating, but I wasn’t concerned. I assumed it was a software glitch. And, my phone automatically backs up every night. I just assumed it would be a pain in the ass, and nothing more. I entered my iCloud login to restore, and it wasn’t accepted. Again, I was irritated, but not alarmed.

I went to connect it to my computer and restore from that backup—which I had just happened to do the other day. When I opened my laptop, an iCal message popped up telling me that my Gmail account information was wrong. Then the screen went gray, and asked for a four digit pin.

I didn’t have a four digit pin.

By now, I knew something was very, very wrong. I walked to the hallway to grab my iPad from my work bag. It had been reset too. I couldn’t turn on my computer, my iPad, or iPhone.

I used my wife’s iPhone to call Apple tech support. While on hold, I grabbed her laptop and tried to log into gmail. My password had changed. I couldn’t reset it either because the backup went to iCloud, where my password had also changed.

I checked Twitter, and saw someone had just sent a tweet from that account. I tried to log into Gmail again, and now it told me that my Google account had been deleted. The way to restore it was to send a text message to my phone which I didn’t (and still do not) have access to.

Read the rest here.

[MSUredux]

And that dear sir's, is why I don't like the "cloud" and linking all these social networking sites and your email addresses together.

[Bad Haircut]

People are idiots

hmm, wise words.

[Dark Angel]

I use two factor id on my FB, my phone registration email account isn't linked to anything and use different passwords depending on the nature of the site I'm visiting (tiered system. PWs at the top ie banking etc are completely unique plus two factor IDs). My home ISP email account pw is also unique.
I also agree, putting your data and security in the hands of an anonymous cloud is a really bad idea (so is not having hard backups )

[Grogan]

Hahah... apple fanboy gets brutally broomraped. I hope he was one of those smug, smart assed mac snobs too.

[MSUredux]

I hope he was one of those smug, smart assed mac snobs too.

That's pretty much guaranteed.

[Dark Angel]

Not every Mac user is like that. I know at least ... three that aren't at all smug about it, but I don't think they know any better either. I suppose that's three out of several hundred thousand.

[[ GK ]]

True, not every Mac user is smug and naive. Any system can be hacked, whether it's Windows, OS X or Linux. I've owned Macs before (none currently), and would not be against having one again. I like the Apple aesthetic, and I know what's under the hood is nothing that esoteric. It's no different than buying a car. Any car will take you from here to there, but you're going to pay more for a Porsche than for a Yugo. Both the Porsche and the Yugo probably have a user-replaceable battery, however.

[ZemaTalon]

True, not every Mac user is smug and naive. Any system can be hacked, whether it's Windows, OS X or Linux. I've owned Macs before (none currently), and would not be against having one again. I like the Apple aesthetic, and I know what's under the hood is nothing that esoteric. It's no different than buying a car. Any car will take you from here to there, but you're going to pay more for a Porsche than for a Yugo. Both the Porsche and the Yugo probably have a user-replaceable battery, however.

and their engine compartments aren't full of superglue, to keep you from working on them

[Grogan]

I'm against all Apple products and I actively fight against them. I do my best to let people remain frustrated. I won't even so much as connect a Mac to a router anymore. Installing a printer? That's supposed to be easy, isn't it? (It's not, on a Mac. I can easily do it, but installing a printer from a CD is a task. Even if they get the drivers to install, they still have to go and add the printer.) I used to do stuff on Macs, but I'm much angrier and unsympathetic these days. I also warn that it's difficult to get help or service (it is around here) and I veto any purchases where I have that power or influence. Apple is a despicable company and anything I can do to take money away from them will be my pleasure.

"Where's your smart assed nephew now?"

The same goes for ipods and itunes. I don't care if your kid is crying because they've lost access to their library. Go rag on apple for making it unnecessarily fascist. I'll uninstall and reinstall broken itunes on Windows, but that's about it.

P.S. I'm going to vehemently fight Windows 8 too. I'll be offering Windows 7 downgrades for a nominal fee, and Linux installations. (Probably Mint KDE, with other desktops installed and available under Sessions. I might even make a custom image since the distro kernels are so modular anyway)

[Grogan]

Apple computers ARE essentially full of "superglue" to keep you from working on them. First of all, you need to be an "Authorized Apple Service Center" to be able to get access to any resources. The devices are also designed to be difficult to service. Like having to send shit away to apple to get a battery replaced for one example.

[Dark Angel]

My family know I hate iProducts but since nobody listens to me there's been 3 iPod touch units bought. Of all the crap to inflict on me it had to be an iPhone that can't even make calls and needs military combat armor so the flimsy screen doesn't crack when you fart.
Our friends that have Macs are lovely people, but they are naive about Apple and computers in general. I do know better, but still end up having to get the damn things set up and working on my network.
I may as well turn gay, Apple has been ass-raping me anyway and I even said "NO!" at the door!

[Grogan]

There's peer pressure... kids think they need this crap and a more generic device that gives you complete freedom just won't do.

[Michael_Horatio]

There's peer pressure... kids think they need this crap and a more generic device that gives you complete freedom just won't do

I've been preaching the gospel of android to any of those kids I come in contact with lately..it's starting to sink in on a couple of them.
no itunes
no istore
no quick time
no proprietary Apple shitware

root your own,
fix your own
unlock your own

but you're right..most of them got the iphones because of peer pressure and just not knowing any better. When they see how easy it is to do everything with an android phone compared to an Iphone they all say that the next phone won't be an apple....we'll see...Oh and I don't hate the Iphones..I hate Apple...