Paul Vlissidis, technical director at NGS Secure, comments on the itunes hack:
“This scam is yet another example of how hacking can be viewed as profitable, and therefore the utmost vigilance is necessary from companies in the online services space.
“On the other hand, the seller instructing buyers to only use the accounts for a 12 hour period suggests that there are reasonably robust detection measures in place for fraudulent or stolen accounts.
“There is little users can do if the service provider is hacked and their data is stolen – in this case the provider has some serious questions to answer. However, if the user accounts have been harvested as a result of weak passwords then, to some extent, the users only have themselves to blame.
“Individuals must take some responsibility for their own security. It isn’t rocket science – it’s about using robust passwords, not sharing passwords between sites, and checking account histories and credit card receipts regularly to detect any unusual transactions that might indicate a breach.”