The digital break-in at certificate authority DigiNotar continues to send shockwaves across the globe even as the company suspended sales in the wake of the revelation that hundreds of fraudulent digital certificates have been issued using its credentials.

As we previously reported, the breach affected well-known sites such as Facebook, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Twitter, Skype and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and even intelligence agencies such as the CIA, MI6 and Mossad.

Given the role of SSL certificates in authenticating the legitimacy of innumerable websites, the presence of fake ones means that man-in-the-middle attacks against these sites could now be pulled off without the target knowing.

This state of affairs was what led Google, Mozilla and Microsoft to swiftly blacklist the hundreds of fraudulent certificates uncovered to date.  Underscoring the severity of the situation, Microsoft has gone so far as to completely block certificates issued by DigiNotar, keeping sites bearing DigiNotar SSL certificates from even loading.

For all the furious updates however, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has so far remained silent on the issue. This is hardly surprising, given Apple's poor track record of responding promptly to non-critical bugs or security vulnerabilities.

Perhaps Daniel Duffy, CEO of Valley Network Solutions, a security solutions provider, put it best when he told CRN: "They're great innovators, but they're not a technology company. I see them more as a sales and marketing company."

For more:
- check out this article at CRN
- check out this article at eWeek
- check out this article at CIO

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