Apple: iTunes was ‘totally hacked’ a few years ago

In the period around 2008 iTunes was ‘totally hacked’. That’s what an Apple CEO said in a testimony at a lawsuit. During that time, Apple removed music that users had not purchased on iTunes from iPods.

Apple became convinced that iTunes was completely hacked by the hacks of, among others, the Norwegian DVD Jon, Apple’s chief of security Augustin Farrugia said in testimony in a lawsuit involving iPods, writes business newspaper The Wall Street Journal. DVD Jon had broken the copy protection of tracks in iTunes, among other things.

Apple took controversial measures to prevent hacks. For example, iTunes gave an error when syncing to an iPod when users tried to put music on their MP3 players that had been purchased from a service other than Apple’s own music store. Then the only option was a reset, after which the music was gone. For example, users could not get music from other services on iPods.

Due to this measure, Apple may have to pay compensation to users. The complainants are asking for 284 million euros, but under US law that amount could be three times higher, because Apple has hindered competition.