His digital life was destroyed by hackers

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[@chicostacos2]

The real failure was Amazon.

[@SafwanAG2]

Not really surprised

[@AffectionateLocomotive]

NO. he just relied on the cloud... for backups.😭😭

[@trichomelover4209]

And apple

[@campandcook3118]

Wrong, CrApple was the main issue, instead of a security question, the credit card number was used to reset passwords

[@LUBBERforFlubber]

Apple really. There is nothing you can hack to wipe my linux boxes, heck even my harded windows box isn't at risk like that.

[@Wardenreaper]

Why did he only need the last four digits of his credit card, literally every single website you've entered your card into shows those numbers

[@Cheepchipsable]

Most of the numbers on your card are country code and other info.

[@MsHojat]

@@Cheepchipsable I presume they mean why use the credit card at all. (since even if it was the whole credit card or something, there's still privacy issues with friends/family seeing the card) I think the answer is that it's an easy way for customers to get sorted out because most other ways are going to be too problematic for many customers. Obviously still not a good idea though, and Apple may not use that anymore.

[@CreativityNull]

Because Apple had very poor ways of verification for an Apple ID back then. It's much better now (and by better, I mean more annoying, but reasonably harder to gain unauthorized access.)

[@DatBoi_TheGudBIAS]

​@@Cheepchipsableall of them are a big code

[@hackladdy9886]

That's what's always baffled me about credit cards. It shouldn't be handing over the "keys" to your account, then them letting themselves in and making a charge, but you using the "key" to *send* a transaction yourself, so they don't get any information that can be reused to illegally charge you again, or leak that information to someone else. Unironically done better by cryptocurrency wallets than by the card networks that have been around for decades.

[@ilv1]

To reset apple password you need last 4 digits of CC? That seems incredibly stupid.

[@tdrg_]

That’s because it’s not true

[@ilv1]

@@tdrg_ why do you say that? It happened in 2012. Might not be true now, if that is what you meant.

[@tdrg_]

@@ilv1 looking through archived apple support docs, it looks like not much has changed in this exact format of account recovery. The process detailed seems to be the last resort: contacting Support and having them reset your account. It requires not just CC number and email address, but also a government ID verification, a payment to said credit card to be verified and go through (temporary payment, verifies that you own the card and approve its use in this support process), and whatever else they ask you to provide based on the circumstance. It’s also not automated, it’s a human being looking through the details and deciding what else is necessary.

[@alancarnell2747]

Apple only thinks about money. Nothing else matters. Mother's maiden name? So last century. Credit cards are better. (Their thinking)

[@gabrielbarrantes6946]

Why can a password be reseted using card numbers??? That's nonsense.

[@artyd42]

Old Social Engineering in action.

[@raystayofficial]

Bro security ques

[@JonnyAppleWeed]

It's crazy that you commented just to show everyone that you have zero critical thinking skills.

[@MeiinUK]

These days, people also uses actual different methods as well... So... It isn't as simple as you assume any more. This was how entire banking systems or branches had been stolen away from different countries... i.e. An entire bank was stolen.

[@fabiandrinksmilk6205]

Card numbers are dumb in general. Why can you pay by just numbers stamped on a card? One photo of the front and back someone can make charges. And because it's so sensitive they use it as identification? It's like the social security number stuff all over again.

[@Reader-mjhst]

But why though? Did Mat steal that hacker's girlfriend?

[@marinejoe]

Right...

[@PratapKumar_24]

😂😂

[@DeezNutsOvaYoFace]

They’re losers

[@TheAndreicornel]

If a person is really wicked, he will do it just because he can and suffer no consequences.

[@elvoandro7087]

I doubt both of those geeks ever shock a woman's hand

[@dynamoaanval]

After that he stopped using apple's shit service

[@marvinracer88]

Yeah, Apple made him disclose his email and physical address on a fucking blog site.

[@ExtroLurkerhaz]

Once you throw money apples way you kinda deserve it. Don't feed the greed. Greed is bad.

[@dan-bz7dz]

@@marvinracer88 No. Apple really are that dumb. Once they get a hold of your apple id, there is no way to get it back. Not even with the email you originally signed in with. The actual username

[@dynamoaanval]

@@ExtroLurkerhaz yea open-source rules!

[@tdrg_]

Let me get this straight. The hacker fooled Amazon and now Apple’s responsible? Interesting point of view I must say

[@tymongajewski2816]

They did all this for fun? I guarantee you that hacker is on 4chan 24/7

[@tzisorey]

It's been said before - it's stupid that something everyone considers so unimportant that they'll display it freely (the last 4 digits of the credit card) is also so important that they'll let you use it to prove your identity.

[@MozzyMozbourne]

Not the hacker who ruined the dudes life, it was Amazon.

[@dan-bz7dz]

And Apple

[@janvanwilligen9758]

Amazon was being negligent, but the hacker was actively ruining his life. I'm not saying Amazon is not in the wrong but the hacker is definitely to blame.

[@daysofend]

You cannot stop a sufficiently motivated hacker. These platforms are incredibly secure generally. Strengthening these cases incurs a usability cost that can be even more frustrating to customers vs. having one customer pwned.

[@farooqbhatti474]

I didn't understood the amazon part, how did he got into his amazon account?

[@hydrocurry6494]

He made a new one ask to link it prolly was able to see card

[@Stone_624]

What I believe happened based on what I can see is : 1) He Added HIS credit card Mat's Amazon Account by calling Amazon Customer Support #1 . They made the change to Mat's account without confirmation of Identity. 2) Now that his card was on Mat's Account, He was able to call Amazon Support #2 and Request to change the password, Using HIS Credit card on Mat's Amazon Account to confirm to Amazon Support that He "Owned" Mat's Amazon Account. Once they confirmed his Credit Card was on the Account, That completed the "Account Authentication" step of the process and they let him change the password, and he was able to log into the account (and see the list of credit cards). Terrifyingly Genius if you ask me, and a HUGE flaw on Amazon's part. He should have needed Account Authentication to add the credit card to the account in the first place. EDIT : It probably wasn't his personal Credit Card, But a Fake Temporary one (Some websites / services allow you to create one-time use credit cards, etc) , Or a Business one -- That way the Name etc. could be Mat's or at least not look like it was from an individual besides Mat.

[@reyariass]

The hacker hacked it, duhhh

[@user-fi7ke9hy9t]

"Mac is so safe!"

[@pamady276]

The hacker use information that victim provided to the public, that's why, we should never syncronize our main e-mail with work e-mail

[@But1332]

Relax its Mac

[@JonnyAppleWeed]

Nothing is safe if you're providing your own information publicly...

[@Chleosl]

But human is not.

[@But1332]

@@Chleosl humans always the weakest link in the chain true

[@alexanderzawydiwski9534]

Surprised of how much work some would go through to screw over someone else’s life

[@Fluffy_Penguin727]

There is no rest for the wicked.

[@hehehehe_hah]

Yeah unless its personal i dont understand why someone would do that. Maybe attention idk

[@Asfgxff]

Cluster B.

[@vektersaxon]

Twitter layout from 2012 ! Need to read his own story on the old wired article to get things clear..

[@genovo]

Apple using credit cards for identity?

[@CM-xr9oq]

I call BS, too.

[@andrewwang7699]

well, this was in 2012

[@tdrg_]

@@andrewwang7699i don’t think they ever did, not even in 2012. It’s such a bad way of verifying user identity

[@ricardofilipe8973]

he learned cybersec the hardway and that not everything is ever safe in the cloud

[@vN2w3Z59BM]

real hackers could have done that a long time ago, they just never cared... that kid had something against him 😮

[@surgio98]

Who is this guy and why did they erase his stuff?

[@adammiller9029]

He started making local backups...instead of using 2 factor.

[@Tijdperkzuid]

The real failure was apple.

[@marvinracer88]

Did apple made him disclose his fucking address and email to anyone?

[@tdrg_]

> dude discloses his real location & email to the public > hacker fools Amazon into giving him everything about this dude > Apple is responsible 100% logic

[@deathdefier45]

This is why I don't have a digital life lol, not on any social media either

[@hehehehe_hah]

KZbin is a social media

[@RazzielRecordRomania]

When you rely on apple for protection😂

[@FodaseNaoLigo]

What ?

[@marvinracer88]

Did apple force him to share his fucking physical address to the public? or email? no. Go cry to your huawei piece of shit.

[@tdrg_]

Well it isn’t Apple who caused this in the first place. Amazon gave the hacker literally everything they needed to hack not just into his Apple account, but his Twitter and Google too.

[@ramsey2155]

Average apple user problems

[@tdrg_]

> reveals personal email and home address > hacker fools Amazon into giving him details about the dude > hacker breaches into Twitter, Apple and Google accounts with that data > Apple is to blame 🤦

[@munga1111]

They tried to free bro from the matrix and he jumped straight back in

[@gardenlifelove9815]

Amazon fails at security often but gets away with it somehow

[@johnraffensperger]

Y'all slagging off Apple and Amazon , fair enough, but the hacker is the criminal. They should go to jail.

[@Exogone]

android users having 2618372 google accounts:

[@WalterWD]

That's not hacking. A bit of research, and social engineering, but that's it. That's how simple it really is.

[@nottechytutorials]

Anyone could do the same thing if they're petty enough and have lots of time.

[@AK-zi2rg]

Finally someone who will start local backups. I have a backup of my backup for my important files. And the redundant ones i just keep it for the hackers grab.

[@thngzys]

After this "accident". What a phrase.

[@vaughanellis7866]

A real failure by Amazon and Honan! Mat Honan should have know better that to have NO back ups, I taught My nephews and nieces to run the basic "Son, Father, Grandfather" back up cycle, especially when they were at University so if they had a data loss it would be limited to one day, and they are never left plugged into their laptop.

[@jwstolk]

This mostly shows the weakness in password reset system. Often 2fa is not really two factors as you can use one to reset the other. Security is simple until you need to setup new passwords without physical contact.

[@vlogoont]

That's why in India without an OTP(One Time Password) you can't perform a reset on a password. Even Apple is obligated.

[@alancarnell2747]

The mention of the hackers age implies their identity is known. Maybe mention their punishment to keep like minded people at bay somewhat.

[@Techlifeandmore]

If Matt had two factor authentication, this probably could've all been prevented, if not completely mostly prevented.

[@ozzymandius666]

Matt is a Buzzfeed type.

[@sidd8087]

wtf that was way too easy .. it shouldn't be this way

[@tsuruginohikari6739]

"shouldn't"

[@sidd8087]

@@tsuruginohikari6739 what ?

[@DevanK-rg3td]

​@@tsuruginohikari6739are you dumb

[@JonnyAppleWeed]

​@@sidd8087it's only as easy as you make it. All the information the "hacker" got was provided by the person being hacked...

[@vektersaxon]

I assume back in summer 2012, amazon and apple worked differently given Mat exposed crucial information. Honestly I don't get either how his credit card let his acc to et compromised...They are terrible passwords.

[@m0rpeth500]

Should've ended with "Don't be like Mat. Back your shit up."

[@vlada]

So instead of using a redirect email thats available from Gmail, the tech journalist publish both email and address? Yup, that's a juggalo alright.

[@AzumiRM]

I hate the way the terms "hacker" and "hack" have become so misused.

[@thebeastinsdeu]

This why you don't put your info on the internet. First thing all 90s kids knew.

[@noeneonmusic]

How is this a hacker?

[@phillydee3592]

Why did he expose most of his personal info online🤦🏻‍♂️

[@KManAbout]

He's a journalist.

[@KManAbout]

And it was only his address and email. You know, stuff that you need to make known if you are a public journalist so that people can send things.

[@phillydee3592]

You do not have to give your address tho,e-mail I get it,but at least an e-mail address that is not linked to other social media accounts, etc.

[@KManAbout]

@@phillydee3592 true but its not crazy for him to do that at least compared to other people

[@sebastianmuller1210]

He learned something.

[@TheCodeHunter]

Some people in this world don’t deserve to use technology

[@ZrcKen]

**Some** hackers also take revenge on greedy people or scammers

[@Antoshka91d]

Not hacking! It's social engineering!

[@stygianrenegade]

That is not hacking but social engineering

[@nayaknaresh]

Local back ups. Google cloud, AWS 💀💀💀

[@Tehrawrzorz]

I don't care about journalists

[@qltGaming]

Love how the people here think Amazon "ruined" his life. Its not like it was his decision to use their services, lmao

[@chaos2232]

This is so confusing and could've been so avoidable!

[@davetdowell]

No! A person working in technology who understood so little about it that he put everything needed to screw up his life online... surely not. It's not like my industry is now full of such people, dishing out commentary and advice to other people.

[@hadi96100]

What passes off as a "Technology Journalist" nowadays.

[@-average]

But also - don't leave easily identifiable information like your address or phone number on the internet... weird that a technology journalist doesn't know what age we live in

[@nobodycares3900]

Btw, this is how most of the hacking is done. No fancy hacking the mainframe. Its just some of kind of an asshole, pretending to be someone else.

[@PhobosTK]

Looks like he hasn't ruined his life, but taught three important lessons: 1)do your own backups, 2)limit the amount of identifiable info you're giving away and 3)don't use apple stuff. Big W here.

[@tdrg_]

1. Good advice if you know how to manage it 2. Best advice 3. Braindead advice

[@PhobosTK]

@@tdrg_ sorry mate, but modern apple stuff nowadays is just plain awful and their security is questionable at best.

[@tdrg_]

@@PhobosTK as proven by?

[@MichaelHarto]

The boldness of this guy to put personal details on the internet😂

[@aquss33]

He literally just put his adress there since that was his workplace, there's ways to find that very easily for so many people who live and work at the same place !! Honestly you probably know where hundreds of people live. I do not understand how people can be such dickheads

[@coctailrob]

Wasn't this the guy who who made contact with the hacker and said tell me how you did it and I won't press charges?

[@araigumakiruno]

he was not hacking per se, he just asked nicely and know what to do

[@arturas7150]

Well done and thas an apple for u 😂😂😂

[@sirfabyan]

in germany we say gschichten ausm paulanergarten

[@XYZQ578]

Digital life is not a life lol

[@3dmotormaker]

This happened YEARS ago. All because the hacker wanted @mat.

[@SK0D3N420]

I delete everything on a weekly basis

[@jmtradbr]

Reasons you don't trust everything to the cloud. Making a offline backup of important things is essential. And when i mean offline i mean outside of your PC. I still have CDs from backups i did in 2005 lol.

[@CM-xr9oq]

To reset the Apple account password, the last 4 of his CC were needed?

[@wmuckbangs4870]

Mistakes number one was apple

[@FiveBros1]

I was a victim in feb this year😢. I don't know how. But i guess it was computer virus that destroyed all my digital accounts. I used a lot of crappy softwares as i have a cellphone shop , i used this device to unlock phones etc.

[@Derekzparty]

3 2 1 Backup ... 3 copies of your data (your production data and 2 backup copies) on two different media (disk and tape) with one copy off-site for disaster recovery.

[@Heheh01737]

Where tf is actual hacking this is fucking stalking but hard

[@N5O1]

good "technology journalist" what can say?😂

[@randomdude1053]

Turn on 2FA for everything

[@dharamveersinghgill5315]

So was the 19 year old hacker caught?

[@BloodyIron]

Apple security is a facade.

[@tdrg_]

Y’all are exploiting this to spread your agenda How is Apple at fault because bro exposed his personal email and home address and the criminal fooled Amazon into giving him the recovery email and CC number?

[@Guilty404]

He probably got bored, that's all No harm intended.

[@danielg2946]

SO A CALL TO aMAZON BY PHONE, BYPASSES 2FA?

[@DergaZuul]

Sounds like BS, or they omit a lot of details how it was actually done and how he messed up by doing something.

[@Kaiyats]

Sounds like Bs to me

[@axeltech9914]

I hope he sue google, apple and Amazon as well.

[@princea08999]

4 Page each TnCs he accepted during signing up: 🦒

[@badrinath5306]

Wait how can Amazon do that???!!! Also why do u need credit card for google authentication?? I think u skipped something......

[@pankajjaiswal6498]

So much security.

[@HamguyBacon]

companies like gaytube telling you to enter your real name and address

[@thepvporg]

This is why I am not visible in the internet. Regular searches for your name will return a list of names like yours and maybe a couple of social media accounts but thats all.

[@00dfm00]

Apple made that way too easy. Another reason I don't trust them.

[@tdrg_]

> dude posts every bit of PII about him on the open Internet > hacker exploits Amazon into giving him recovery email address and CC number > hacker breaks into Google, Apple and Twitter accounts > Apple to blame The logic 🤦

[@rikkusayian2649]

real question is why did they do it

[@chaos.n.dissonance]

Technology journalist that doesn't understand technology... He's lucky it was a kid and not someone with actual malicious intent.

[@trenaxy9938]

That was malicious

[@chaos.n.dissonance]

@@trenaxy9938 That was a kid slapping his wrist.

[@gvn1111]

That hacker is evil. 🤮

[@Ava-Pop]

Aaaaaaaand I bet you my last dollar that if the Hacker tried the SAME THING AGAIN because Amazon & Apple ONLY Huff & Puff and do nothing else

[@nomadshiba]

"technology journalist" - Street address out in the open - You can login Apple account with last 4 digits of your credit card number, which can also be brute forced. - Google account can be accessed via Apple account Everything he has can be compromised just by guessing 4 digits. And his solution was backing up stuff locally. Bro losing your data is not even your main problem.

[@tdrg_]

I call BS on the 4-digit login n all that, but if this is true that’s not a very good technology journalist.

[@AhHaAhHaAhHa]

That guy got murdered digitally

[@marinejoe]

Oooooo did you get muuurdered?

[@nonanik112]

amazon create a new account after saying your mail address sends OTP code

[@psyopswitch]

what did he do to said hacker to tick them off so much

[@freddylosangeles1378]

..against bad hackers..

[@alvideos2145]

so wait, this all got hacked because of his apple account?

[@tdrg_]

No. Because he made his personal email public, and then the hacker fooled Amazon into giving them his recovery email and CC number too, enabling the hackers to reset his passwords for almost anything

[@aleckerby1236]

Was he or did he work for bbc...

[@lowlevelcodingch]

His fault tho, like why show so much info. And amazon too

[@alihasanabdullah7586]

A for Apple B for Balls

[@ericapelz260]

Use two-factor authentication on everything, especially social media, because it's a big target. Sure, it can be annoying, but less so than losing access to your accounts. Hardware keys are best, but authenticator apps work ok. Try to avoid text or email codes when possible since they are not encrypted and are easy to steal. (still better than nothing.)

[@julienv7031]

Apple was the problem here

[@tdrg_]

🤦 Join the club. You’re the 8th person I have to clarify this to. So Mat made his personal email and address public, hacker used social engineering to trick Amazon into giving them a CC number and recovery email, hacker breaks into Google, Apple and Twitter, and Apple is to blame. Don’t you happen to notice something out of place at the conclusion of that summary?