Computer and software giant Apple said Sunday that it took its software developers website offline after it was hacked, warning that personal information about them may have been stolen.

"Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website," Apple said in a statement.

Although sensitive  information was encrypted, "we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers' names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed."

The information technology giant said in a statement titled "We'll be back soon" that they made the hack attack known "in the spirit of transparency."

Company officials "took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.

"In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we're completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database," Apple said, apologizing and adding that they "expect to have the developer website up again soon." (AFP)