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Putting things into perspective: 0.0003% of iTunes users were compromised

By Joshua Schnell Wed, Jul 7, 2010 @ 12:25 PM

Putting things into perspective: 0.0003% of iTunes users were compromisedThere are 150 million iTunes users, and out of that number about 400 were affected by the iTunes debacle this week, according to research done by Clayton Morris. That works out to being 0.0003% of the users on iTunes who had fraudulent activities on their credit cards over the last couple of days.

It’s a good opportunity to take a step back and put things into perspective a little bit, considering the amount of press that was given to this issue. Don’t get us wrong; any type of credit card fraud needs to be reported so that users can take active steps to make sure they’re protected, but a simple post letting people know what’s happening, and the steps they should take to protect themselves, should suffice.

Perhaps the real news here is that Apple seems to have a bigger problem than they’re currently letting on.  There are a number of reports that some of the App Store categories have been gamed a little bit to ensure that a nefarious company could dominate the top apps listings in those particular categories (this is part of the fraud problem).  There’s also a report today that Apple’s been looking for a fraud prevention officier to monitor their App Store for abnormalities and illegal activities.  It’s a smart move for Apple; as the App Store continues to grow, there will be increased incentive for criminals to game the system for profit.

A brief aside

We wrestle with posting some of the articles that we read about on a daily basis. Because Apple fans are very passionate about their platform of choice, they have a voracious appetite for Apple related news. A lot of times, things get posted on other websites that we pass up, or keep our posts brief.

We’re not perfect by any means, but we certainly strive to keep things in perspective, and in an industry that’s known to blow things completely out of perspective it often means we’re passing up traffic. It is amusing, however, to see which sites have turned into the Perez Hiltons of the tech world.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got 10 other posts to write on this exact topic. Insert eye-roll here.

Image Credit: H:Balazs

  • http://Bethmahoney.com Beth Mahoney

    This has been made out to be a huge deal by the press. Thank you for putting this into prospective. I was concerned when I heard that accounts were compromised, but once you see the numbers, way less than 1% of users, you realize how relatively small the problem was. However, I hope Apple follows through with proactive steps so something like this never happens again.

    • http://www.macgasm.net Joshua Schnell

      No problem, I’ve been pretty annoyed by the coverage as well. The echo chamber really needs to be looked at in detail. Things are starting to get out of hand.