Apple Orders Support Representatives to Suspend Password Resets?

Apple has reportedly ordered its support representatives to immediate halt password resets requested over the phone, according to Wired.

The instruction comes after the site published a story detailing how easy it was for one of its reporters to get hacked via a simple call to Apple support.

An Apple worker with knowledge of the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Wired that the over-the-phone password freeze would last at least 24 hours. The employee speculated that the freeze was put in place to give Apple more time to determine what security policies needed to be changed, if any.

The change follows similar security tightening at Amazon, which on Tuesday closed a hole in its customer service systems that gave people the ability to gain control of a customer's Amazon account as long as the hacker knew the name, e-mail address and mailing address of the victim.

When Wired attempted a password reset today they were told that the company was going through system-wide "maintenance updates" that prevented password resets over the phone. The rep said to try back after about 24 hours.

"Right now, our system does not allow us to reset passwords," the Apple rep told Wired. "I don't know why."

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