You're correct and being downvoted for it.
Even if this is not a "hack" it's still something apple should be taking seriously since it's something its users can clearly panic about.
It might be a hardware fault, though getting apple to admit that is like finding an upvoted post on HN critical of apple.
I don't doubt that this might be nothing, but seeing all these commenters completely dismissing it is rather odd.
Hopefully Apple is less dismissive of this potential security issue.