Apple has a fix for the FaceTime eavesdropping bug that made headlines earlier this week, but users will have to wait a little bit for the update.
Apple said today that it's fixed the Group FaceTime bug on its servers and will deploy a software update to re-enable the feature for users next week. In a statement to MacRumors, Apple explains that as soon as its engineering team was able to reproduce the bug, it disabled Group FaceTime and began working on a fix. The company added that it will work to improve the process that it receives and escalates bug reports to ensure that they get to the right people as quickly as possible.
Here's Apple's full statement:
"We have fixed the Group FaceTime security bug on Apple's servers and we will issue a software update to re-enable the feature for users next week. We thank the Thompson family for reporting the bug. We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue. We appreciate everyone's patience as we complete this process.
"We want to assure our customers that as soon as our engineering team became aware of the details necessary to reproduce the bug, they quickly disabled Group FaceTime and began work on the fix. We are committed to improving the process by which we receive and escalate these reports, in order to get them to the right people as fast as possible. We take the security of our products extremely seriously and we are committed to continuing to earn the trust Apple customers place in us."
This bug allows one person to hear the person on the other end of a FaceTime call, even if that person doesn't actually accept the call. You could even see the other person on video in some cases. All that you had to do was begin a FaceTime call and then add yourself to that call to begin a Group FaceTime call.
Obviously this is a pretty serious security issue, as anyone could call you over FaceTime and get your audio and possibly video without your consent. Apple did disable Group FaceTime shortly after the bug was widely publicized. Now a software update is coming to fix the issue, and hopefully it arrives sooner rather than later. We'll let you know when the rollout begins.
Apple says FaceTime bug fix coming next week originally posted at http://phonedog.com
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