Oops: Turkish Security Researcher Claims Responsibility for Apple Developer Portal Hack

A mere day after Apple confirmed that its developer portal had been broken into, a Turkish man named Ibrahim Balic has (bravely?) fessed-up, claiming all responsibility. Apple has yet to comment on the situation, and we're not even sure it will, at least publicly. If Balic is in fact the source of the attack, Apple might wish to take actions other than simply confirming that he was in fact at the heart of things.

To help back up Balic's claims, he uploaded a video to YouTube that proved that he could gain information from Apple's database; at the forefront, user IDs. This video has since been taken down (allegedly not by him), likely as the result of a request by Apple, as the video clearly displayed confidential information.

According to Balic, his intention was never to cause harm, or make off with people's data. Instead, he said that he was trying to prove to Apple about how vulnerable its system is. Over the course of a few days, he submitted 13 separate bugs to Apple, and not long after, the entire developer network was taken down. If Balic's intentions were in fact only to help greater secure Apple's system, you can imagine how he might have felt with that being the reaction.

What's most upsetting about all of this isn't the fact that someone exploited a bunch of data on this massive network, but that they were able to. We're dealing with some unbelievable trends here, where bigger and bigger networks are being targeted. This past weekend, it was discovered that Ubuntu's official forums had been exploited as well, resulting in nearly 20 million users having some of their data exposed.

By all appearences, Balic seems to be telling the truth, especially with the evidence that was quickly covered up by YouTube. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, and see how Apple chooses to comment from this point forward.