Was Apple developer info hacked or made more secure?

A security researcher claims to be responsible for an Apple database compromise that the iPhone-maker has confirmed. The breached service houses information on app developers.

“Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed,” according to a 7/21 notice on the Apple developer website intended to serve as a placeholder for the site’s database, which the company took down within hours of the breach.

Apple did not indicate who entered the system or how.

But Wired reports, “The purported ‘hacker,’ it turns out, was a well-meaning independent security researcher.” Shortly after the Apple notice posted, the outsider, named Ibrahim Balic, came forward in a comment he left on a TechCrunch article.

‘I needed to be heard, and I guess I successfully have,’ Balic wrote.

He was inspecting Apple’s website, looking for bugs, and one of the issues he identified gave him access to the user information, including the developer’s full name, email address, and user ID.

Balic did not disclose the database flaw that allowed him to see this data.

He does not plan on sharing any of the user data he uncovered, Balic says.