Apple Software Update Server Certificate Expired

UPDATE:
Apple updated the SSL Certificate for swscan.apple.com on early Sunday, May 25, 2014.

swscan.apple.com new certificate 20140525

——-

Late Saturday afternoon, a colleague told me that he was having issues getting software updates through the Mac App Store.

An error has occurred

The certificate for this server is invalid. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be “swscan.apple.com” which could put your confidential information at risk.

Apple-Software-Update-SSL-Error

Upon further investigation, apparently someone at Apple forgot to install new SSL Certificate for swscan.apple.com.

swscan.apple.com certificate expired

Is it possible that a small company like Apple could not afford at least one person to make sure all their security certificate up to date?

Mr Tim Cook, I am available to do the one job. How about $200,000 a year sound?

 

Journalism or Lack Thereof: Apple-Beats Rumor

Apple-Beats

John Gruber on the Apple-Beats Deal:

That they’ve been so wrong thus far makes me disinclined to believe anything Billboard (or The Financial Times, or The Wall Street Journal, or anyone else who reported the deal as imminent back on May 8) reports about it now.

(Reminder: the links to The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal are behind paywall.)

Since the rumor (which is not an actual news) broke, a lot of pros and cons about the supposed deal were published. Almost all of them are laughable.

It is so irresponsible for these publications not to treat rumors as what they really are; just rumors.

I tried to find a highly cited news-piece published by Billboard in the recent years which turned out to be a total garbage.  Anyone remembers what it was?

 

eBay Asks Users to Change Passwords due to Security Breach

From eBay:

Earlier today eBay Inc. announced it is aware of unauthorized access to eBay systems that may have exposed some customer information. There is no evidence that financial data was compromised and there is no evidence that PayPal or our customers have been affected by the unauthorized access to eBay systems. We are working with law enforcement and leading security experts to aggressively investigate the matter.

As a precaution, we will be asking all eBay users (both buyers and sellers) to change their passwords later today. As a global marketplace, nothing is more important to eBay than the security and trust of our customers. We regret any inconvenience or concern that this situation may cause you.  We know our customers and partners have high expectations of us, and we are committed to ensuring a safe and secure online experience for you on any connected device.

Click here for updates and additional information.

 

Ebay is asking its users to reset their passwords due to the unauthorized access to our corporate information network. This may result in a delay of service due to the high traffic volume. We ask for your patience and that you return to eBay soon. In the meantime, please be assured that no activity can occur on your account until your password is reset.

You may also visit Customer Service

eBay Hacked

I really think that we have become desensitized by this kind of security breach. Nevertheless, I have changed my eBay password. As a matter of fact I did not even remember what my password was; I had to request a password reset. The last time I bought anything from eBay was about 9 years ago; and it was from a verified and known seller.

The Trouble with Windows 8

It seems a lot of people having issues with Windows 8.x. Somehow it is impossible to refresh/reinstall Windows 8 because the drive was “locked”.

Windows 8.1 drive is locked

There are a lot of suggestion on what to do in solving this issue, but none of them seems to be the solution.