5 Companies That Had A Rough Week
The Week Ending Sept. 5
This week's roundup of companies that had a rough week includes Apple's iCloud service and Home Depot, the latest possible victims of hacker attacks; Cisco's problems with its Invicta flash storage appliance; a German court ruling against Uber; and Google's $19 million fine for kids' unauthorized in-app purchases.
Hackers Steal Celebrity Photos from Apple's iCloud
Apple's iCloud service received a black eye this week when hackers stole revealing photos of Hollywood actresses -- including "Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence -- from their iCloud accounts.
Apple has maintained that the incident was not the result of a breach of Apple's systems, but was instead a targeted phishing attack on the celebrities' user names, passwords and security questions.
Cisco Halts Invicta Appliance Shipments Amid Scalability Issues
Cisco stopped shipping its UCS Invicta flash storage appliances this week after some customers reported quality issues in deployments, specifically scalability problems when customers try to stack the appliances to expand capacity.
Cisco launched the UCS Invicta appliance in January, using technology from its $415 million acquisition of flash storage vendor Whiptail last September. This week Cisco execs said they are addressing the reported problems and hope to resume product shipments later this fiscal quarter.
Home Depot Investigates Possible Security Breach
Another week, and another retailer scrambles to investigate a potential security breach. Home Depot this week confirmed that it's investigating whether a cache of stolen credit card information is linked to a data breach at its stores.
Home Depot found out about the possible data theft on Tuesday, but as of press time it hadn't conclusively confirmed the breach. The retailer has hired Symantec and FishNet Security to help with the probe and the company has promised customers that they will not be responsible for any fraudulent charges. The company has also vowed to install checkout systems for chip-enabled credit and debit cards in all of its stores by the end of this year.
Uber Service Hit With Court Ruling In Germany
A Frankfurt, Germany, court ruled this week that ride-sharing service Uber lacks the necessary permits to operate its low-cost UberPop under German law and should be shut down. The court also said Uber faced fines up to 250,000 Euros per trip if it continued to operate, according to a BBC story.
UberPop relies on drivers who are not Uber employees who use their own cars to transport passengers. Uber said the ban was unenforceable and it would continue to operate the service while it appealed the ruling.
Google Pays $19 Million Fine For Children's Unauthorized Purchases
In a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission this week, Google agreed to pay a $19 million fine to resolve complaints that it charged parents for unauthorized in-app purchases made by their children. Some parents complained that since Google introduced in-app purchases in 2011 their kids had made unauthorized purchases worth hundreds of dollars.
Google is providing refunds to customers, with $19 million the minimum total, and agreed to modify its billing practices to ensure "express, informed consent from consumers" for purchases made using mobile applications, the company said in a statement.