Apple stores “unavailable” for all users

Apple reported on 11 March that its iTunes, iBooks and App stores were ‘unavailable for all users’, as of 5.10pm GMT. iCloud services were also affected earlier in the day, leaving users unable to access their files, before being restored.

Apple has yet to confirm what is causing the outages, although from its status reporting page they appear to be global.

The news comes during a turbulent week for the giant. Today, reports emerged that the Apple Watch, launched only this week, was already being counterfeited and sold on Chinese online marketplaces.

Coinciding with the Watch launch, Apple also patched the so-caled FREAK security vulnerabilities in products, including its Safari browser. As it said in its announcement of the fix, the affected software:

…accepted short ephemeral RSA keys, usually used only in export-strength RSA cipher suites, on connections using full-strength RSA cipher suites. This issue, also known as FREAK, only affected connections to servers which support export-strength RSA cipher suites, and was addressed by removing support for ephemeral RSA keys.

 

Microsoft also moved this week to patch the FREAK vulnerability.

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