iPhone 4 preorders rumored to involve another AT&T security breach

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Just days after AT&T was hit with a security breach regarding e-mail addresses of iPad 3G owners, a new rumor suggests that U.S. iPhone 4 preorders may also have been the victim of an accidental information leak.



Citing an "AT&T insider," Gizmodo on Tuesday said that an allegedly faulty server software update may have caused the problems that users faced in attempting to preorder iPhone 4. Customers throughout the day were frustrated as online orders failed to confirm eligibility for existing AT&T customers.



Earlier Tuesday, a user had sent the website a screenshot that showed a user who logged in to their AT&T account, but it showed a different customer's name and information.



The tipster, who claimed to work at a third-party order processing facility for AT&T, reportedly said that a "major fraud update" implemented on the wireless carrier's systems over the weekend went wrong. Those issues, the person claimed, could have lead to security issues during the iPhone 4 preorder on Tuesday experienced by at least one customer.



"I can confirm that there was a major outage over the weekend that impacted all ordering systems and programs, and I can confirm that there were multiple systems being upgraded/updated, with some updates being related to fraud," the anonymous source told Gizmodo. "At this point, I can say that the system that AT&T uses to send automated orders to be processed is as of this very moment down completely. Our facility is unable to process any orders by phone or by automation."



The tipster suggested that people who have not yet upgraded might want to wait, "as it may be a doorway to a major privacy breach."







The rumor comes just days after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed it had begun a probe into a security breach that exposed the e-mail addresses of over 100,000 registered iPad owners.



AT&T last week acknowledged that a security flaw on its website made it possible for hackers to query the company's database and uncover the e-mail addresses of customers who had registered to use its mobile broadband service. At least 114,000 iPad 3G users' e-mail addresses were said to have been leaked.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 40
    msanttimsantti Posts: 1,377member
    More epic fail by AT&T.



    How long is it going to take Apple?



    How long?
  • Reply 2 of 40
    applezillaapplezilla Posts: 941member
    You got that headline completely wrong.



    The MSM will be crowing: 'Apple iPhone 4 preorders from Apple customers involve another Apple security breach... Did we mention it's Apple?'
  • Reply 3 of 40
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by msantti View Post


    More epic fail by AT&T.



    How long is it going to take Apple?



    How long?



  • Reply 4 of 40
    Has this actually happened to anyone?



    I can't say I trust Gizmodo on this one. Anybody can load up a page and fill in some nonsense with FireBug, and I wouldn't put anything beyond Gizmodo at this point. Now if this has actually happened to people, that's a different story...



    Edit: some other articles covering this story say things like 'numerous documented cases' and such. Not sure what that means without sourcing, but people do seem to be saying in comments that it has happened to them. AT&T sure seems like a clumsy company sometimes.
  • Reply 5 of 40
    I called AT&T today to try to get my U-Verse DVR Box replaced (Hard Drive died), and they couldn't schedule me because their system was down. I suspect that AT&T is have lots of computer issues corporate wide....maybe related to this
  • Reply 6 of 40
    anfboymnanfboymn Posts: 32member
    This actually happened to me today so I know it's for real. I logged on about 11:30am to check my upgrade eligibility status. I logged in, saw all of our 5 phones, selected mine, and then clicked to check my eligibility and waited about 45 seconds for the page to load. I knew it'd be slow because of the huge amount of traffic, but was shocked to see I was now logged in as a Robert from Indiana! I also saw he was a part of the Delphi Sponsorship, which is way different than mine. I was alarmed so I wrote down his full name, sponsorship, and city, state, zip, logged out and called AT&T. I notified the Customer Service Rep and she sounded genuinely alarmed and said she was going to go to her Supervisor's desk and escalate this to the proper group. Very interesting and quite scary.
  • Reply 7 of 40
    icazziicazzi Posts: 11member
    I can confirm that when I logged in, their system was behaving erratically. It would spontaneously say that I wasn't logged in anymore and the preorder system kept failing.



    Also, it kept telling me that the 'White' iPhone was unavailable for preorder... don't know if that's related
  • Reply 8 of 40
    appler0xappler0x Posts: 11member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by msantti View Post


    More epic fail by AT&T.



    How long is it going to take Apple?



    How long?



    Most epic fail by AT&T, I would say.



    They better let the breached account holders' get out of their contracts for free -- there is no excuse for this. I've defended AT&T in the past because all of the big cell carriers in the U.S. are evil in their own ways, but this is just inexcusable.
  • Reply 9 of 40
    donlphidonlphi Posts: 214member
    I haven't had any luck getting through the pre-order process. I got up to the point where it showed the phone price, plan price, and then I clicked continue and it said it couldn't process the order at this time.



    Maybe this is gods way of telling me to wait for the iPhone 4GS - because that's what god does, makes cell phone decisions.



    If nothing else, maybe I need to consider waiting for video Skype over 3G network. The video chat doesn't make much sense if I can only use it with wifi. If I'm in a wifi situation, I'm probably at home, capable of chatting with my computer OR I'm in a Starbucks where I don't want to be doing that to begin with.



    I better think this through before they get this thing running.
  • Reply 10 of 40
    appler0xappler0x Posts: 11member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post


    You got that headline completely wrong.



    The MSM will be crowing: 'Apple iPhone 4 preorders from Apple customers involve another Apple security breach... Did we mention it's Apple?'



    Oh so true. Anything, whether it's an issue with Foxconn, AT&T, etc., is always highly publicized for Apple's association with them. Usually Apple has nothing to do with it on their end, but everyone gets on their high horses about it and blames Apple. The Foxconn issues especially -- Dell and a slew of other big name tech companies use them for manufacturing, yet Apple's name was the only one thrown out there by big media.
  • Reply 11 of 40
    shobizshobiz Posts: 207member
    Good grief you guys really do love the drama...
  • Reply 12 of 40
    ezduzitezduzit Posts: 158member
    if you are an apple complainer and don't like the wait to get your new phone, suggest you call up android where there is no wait and they will even throw in an extra phone because they like you. if that's too much then call sprint.



    in the meantime, apple, being overwhelmed with orders at the onset, will cure the problem in short order.



    every company should respond to a problem like apple and that includes bp.
  • Reply 13 of 40
    poochpooch Posts: 768member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ezduzit View Post


    every company should respond to a problem like apple and that includes bp.



    guess i missed something. what's the response been thus far?
  • Reply 14 of 40
    Good grief. Information from a "tipster" with a screenshot. Right.
  • Reply 15 of 40
    radster360radster360 Posts: 546member
    I haven't been successful either. I tried it from Apple and also from AT&T site. If I was Apple, I would remove the dependency on checking eligibility using AT&T. They should continue taking pre-order for the phone on their site. They should just pile up the request and than validate against the AT&T system once they have fixed their problem. In this case, Apple is looking bad also.
  • Reply 16 of 40
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Pooch View Post


    guess i missed something. what's the response been thus far?



    Heh, I know what it was to the email addy issue and let's just say, wasn't the right one.
  • Reply 17 of 40
    wingswings Posts: 261member
    I walked into an ATT store around 1:30pm EDT today. Waited in line for maybe 20 mins, then got my turn at pre-ordering. I upgraded 3 iPhones and each one took maybe 10 minutes. 4-5 minutes of that time was waiting for the credit card device to come back with the OK. To me all seemed pretty much normal, considering.
  • Reply 18 of 40
    mazda 3smazda 3s Posts: 1,613member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wings View Post


    I walked into an ATT store around 1:30pm EDT today. Waited in line for maybe 20 mins, then got my turn at pre-ordering. I upgraded 3 iPhones and each one took maybe 10 minutes. 4-5 minutes of that time was waiting for the credit card device to come back with the OK. To me all seemed pretty much normal, considering.



    Just got back from the AT&T store. Their systems were finally back up and I was able to get my pre-order in for a 32GB BLK. Order shows up in the online order status as well. WOOT!
  • Reply 19 of 40
    jbaughjbaugh Posts: 28member
    I went to my local Radio Shack to "reserve" two iPhones. The clerk was able to reserve a 16GB black iPhone 4 through his computer link. But attempts to reserve the second phone (32GB black iPhone 4) repeatedly failed. He had no explanation for why he couldn't complete the reservation. So I came home and tried to order the phone through Apple store online. The process continues to the "Check eligibility for your AT&T account" page. There I entered my account phone number, zip code and last 4 of my SS. I clicked the check eligibility button and after 1 minute of spinning wheel I got the message, " "Make a reservation. Your request couldn't be processed."



    Next I called the Apple online store number and was greeted with the message that "Due to extremely high call volumes we are unable to take your call at this time."



    Something major has brought down the order process for the new iPhones. It may all be linked to a problem with AT&T not being able to confirm that I am qualified for an update. It may well be that ordering a phone for a new customer might proceed online.



    John
  • Reply 20 of 40
    normangnormang Posts: 118member
    Considering the source, i trust that rumor about as far as I can throw it, Gizmodo is completely unreliable period!!!
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