Jobs' account hacked?

Steve Jobs' Amazon account has supposedly been hacked, claims an individual identifying himself as "orin0co," according to Cult of Mac. The hacker asserts he was able to gain access to the account by sending Jobs a forged, official-looking e-mail to Jobs, tricking the Apple CEO to log into a fake Amazon account, and subsequently providing the hacker with the personal login information.

orin0co believes the incident is humiliating for Apple, which recently advertised Macs as less susceptible to "viruses, crashes, and headaches" in its Elimination ad.

orin0co insinuated greater susceptibility in an e-mail sent using a secure Hushmail account. "Imagine how safe Mac is if you can trick the mighty Steve Jobs," he said.

The hacker maintains that he has not misused the account, otherwise Jobs and Amazon might have realized the intrusion. Apple has declined to comment about whether or not orin0co's claims are true, while Amazon has stated it has no knowledge of any disturbance to Steve Jobs' account.

If the rumor is true, Jobs would be the latest victim in a string of "whaling" attacks aimed at corporate executives, legal firms, government agencies and other high-value targets. iDefence has reported over 15,000 victims in the past 15 months, saying the hackers would target bank account information to net "millions of dollars."

There are some inconsistencies in orin0co's story, namely that there is no substantial proof -- Apple has not made a statement, and some people believe it is unlikely that Jobs would be tricked by such a basic scam. It is also unlikely that Jobs would be such an avid online shopper, purchasing 20,000 items since 1999 according to orin0co's screenshots. The discrepancy is even more apparent given the images indicate Jobs suddenly stopped purchasing items in October of last year.

by MacNN Staff