Those who have updated their iPhones to any of the iOS 12 upgrades now have a serious problem on their hands. In an official statement to Axios, Apple acknowledged that there is a (quite scary) problem with its FaceTime feature – it is possible to access the audio and video of any iPhone running iOS 12.1 or later. What’s even more scarier? Not only is this simple to access, you won’t have any idea that someone has done this to you.
The vulnerability of this is very dangerous as any iPhone owner can now exploit another iPhone owner with three simple steps. I personally do not condone doing this, but to show just how easy it can be done, it goes as follows:
- Go to a contact and start a FaceTime call
- Swipe up and select “Add Person”
- Enter your own cell number and add yourself to the call
The consequences of this puts the privacy of millions of iPhone users at risk and even worse, Apple was warned about this bug earlier this week and did absolutely nothing. A published timeline shows the mother of a 14-year-old boy who tried to report the flaw after watching her son demonstrate just how easy it is, but Apple responded asking the mother to “sign up as an Apple developer and then support an official bug report if she wanted it to be taken seriously,” as Forbes reports. However, now that the bug is known widely, Apple is finally being forced to take action.
Apple promises that a fix to the issue will come “later this week,” and has suspended FaceTime Group calls worldwide. Apple also listed the FaceTime issue on its System Status page.
“We must keep fighting for the kind of world we want to live in. On this #DataPrivacyDay let us all insist on action and reform for vital privacy protections. The dangers are real and the consequences are too important,” CEO Tim Cooks tweeted Monday.
