Apple Music outage hits users
Apple’s System Status confirmed an ongoing Apple Music outage that made playback or library access unavailable or slow for some users earlier today (startupnews.fyi). Separately, security vendors flagged a resurgence of the “iCloud storage is full” scam that pressures users to enter payment details, a social‑engineering vector defenders should watch (malwarebytes.com).
Apple Music was unavailable or slow for some users on Thursday, April 16, after Apple posted an outage notice for playback and library access. (apple.com) Apple’s System Status page listed Apple Music as affected beginning at 4:59 p.m. Eastern on April 16, and 9to5Mac reported the issue hit playback, browsing, and saved libraries for some listeners. (apple.com) (9to5mac.com) By Friday, April 17, Apple’s status page showed all services operating normally again, while Downdetector was still collecting user reports from people checking whether Apple Music was down. (apple.com) (downdetector.com) The service disruption landed as Apple users were also being warned about a separate iCloud-themed phishing campaign that uses fake storage alerts to drive clicks. Malwarebytes said on April 16 that the scam had resurfaced with a new goal: stealing personal and payment details. (malwarebytes.com) In the scam, emails say an iCloud account is full or about to lose photos and videos, then push people to “upgrade” storage through a malicious link. The Guardian reported the messages threaten deletion dates and try to make the warning look urgent and routine. (theguardian.com) (malwarebytes.com) Malwarebytes said it had described an earlier version of the campaign a few months ago, when fake cloud-storage alerts redirected users to an app that was later removed from the Apple Store. In the current version, the social-engineering hook is the same, but the end point is a page asking for financial information. (malwarebytes.com) The National Cybersecurity Center issued its own alert on April 16 saying the messages pressure Apple users to enter payment details to “upgrade” storage. It said the people most at risk are Apple users who rely on iCloud storage. (nationalcybersecuritycenter.org) Apple’s outage notice and the phishing wave are separate events, but they hit the same user base within 24 hours. For Apple Music listeners, the practical split was simple on April 16 and April 17: check Apple’s status page for service problems, and treat storage-warning emails asking for payment details as suspicious until verified. (apple.com) (malwarebytes.com)
