UPDATED 12:55 EDT / AUGUST 03 2013

Weekly Security Review: Apple Partially Restores Dev Center, User Trust Plummets

The cybersecurity space saw a lot of action this past week. Apple has (mostly) bounced back from the recent attack on its developer portal, CSA found that PRISM eroded relations between vendors and enterprise users, and word came out that Lenovo has been blacklisted by the intelligence community. In related news, NQmobile released a security study that names China the biggest market for mobile malware.

SiliconANGLE reported on Monday that a number of Developer Center services – including Safari Dev Center, Certificates, Software Downloads, Mac Dev Center and iOS Dev Center – were brought back online after having been shut down by a database breach. Apple stated in an email that it doesn’t “rule out” the possibility that names, mailing addresses and other personal data belonging to developers has been compromised.

Apple’s failure to safeguard user privacy has taken its toll: the consumer electronics giant is taking heat from foreign consumers over its participation in the PRISM program. A study conducted by the Cloud Security Alliance found that 56 percent of foreign companies are “less likely” to do business with US-based vendors, a statistic that was confirmed by 36 percent of the the latter group.

US tech companies have had their reputation tarnished by their government’s conduct, as have Chinese hardware manufacturers. We recently learned that the intelligence agencies of the US, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand have banned Lenovo computers from being used in their networks due to the company’s ties with the Chinese government.

The intelligence community has many reasons to be worried, as do Chinese consumers. According to the latest report from NQmobile, there are currently 6.7 million compromised mobile devices in China – up 43 percent from the second quarter of 2012.


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