What you need to know
- A prominent leaker has warned Apple employees to expect repair chaos after a cyberattack on repair specialist CSAT Solutions.
- CSAT runs a Houston repair depot used by premium manufacturers including Apple, Dell, and HP.
- More disturbingly, the leaker even suggested that malware or ransomware could have leaked onto customer devices being repaired.
A new Twitter thread from prominent Apple leaker Fudge has warned Apple employees to expect repair chaos in the US following a cyberattack on CSAT solutions.
Fudge shared an iTWire report from November citing a cyberattack on repair specialist CSAT solutions. In a thread, Fudge then warned that the situation was not good from Apple's point of view and that employees should be prepared for several unfortunate side effects.
From the thread:
As of now on the Apple side:S@!£s very f#$£*d. You can expect more CRU's, more situations of Macs disappearing into the void, more cases of unrepaired macs being shipped back, completely wrong unit shipped back, or even shipped to wrong location entirely.
According to Fudge, CSAT runs a large Houston repair depot used by several major tech companies including Apple to repair products.
Fudge further stated the problems would not be resolved "anytime soon", citing CSAT's "slow and incompetent" management, "insane repair quotas" and other unfavorable conditions, stating the problems could continue through January 2021.
Addressing Apple employees directly, Fudge state that the "only thing" they could do was to be patient, deal with more CRUs (customer repair units), and anticipate customer backlash.
Most worryingly, Fudge also left a warning to repair technicians, encouraging them to DFU any T2 Macs and reinstall the operating system once they had received it back:
HIGHLY ADVISABLE TO DFU T2 MACHINES + REINSTALL OS AFTER RECEIVING IT BACK.Theres no guarantee that this is true but it's not impossible for malware/ransomware to have potentially been on the network these customer's machines were on during diagnostics and reinstalls.
If you live in the US and have experienced any holdups or unexpected problems getting a Mac repaired recently, this series of events might well be to blame.
