Apple Says It Will Add New iCloud Security Measures After Celebrity Hack [telecom]

Apple Says It Will Add New iCloud Security Measures After Celebrity Hack

By BRIAN X. CHEN SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

Apple said on Thursday that it would strengthen its security measures after a recent episode where hackers broke into the Apple accounts of a number of celebrities, stole their nude photos and leaked them on the Internet.

The company said it would add alerts to tell people about activities that could be signs of a break-in.

Customers will receive emails and alerts called push notifications, which are messages that show up prominently on iPhones and iPads, when someone tries to change the password for their iCloud account, upload their backed-up account data to a new device or log into their accounts for the first time from an unknown device, the company said. The notifications will be added in two weeks.

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***** Moderator's Note *****

I get an email notification whenever I change a password on Google, or when I fat-finger a login attempt. It's routine, and has been for over a decade. If Apple *wasn't* doing it, that's a serious lapse.

Now, the spin-doctors promise another magic ingredient: "push" notifications that do what every other cloud storage provider does routinely. Gag me with a Silicon Valley Spoon!

Bill Horne Moderator

I'm tempted to use this episode as a reason to denounce Hollywood as a modern-day Gomorrah, but, at least in this case, that's not justified.

Actors must allow casting and costume directors, and other decision- makers to see nude photographs of their bodies during the "treatment" phase of a movie. It's nothing salacious: there are millions of dollars at stake, and the time and professional liberty of world-class experts, so investors are reluctant to let /any/ unknowns go unchecked before they "green light" a process which would reveal every defect, blemish, stretch mark, tatoo, or scar anyway.

Of course, I don't expect actors to be security experts. However, the Screen Actors Guild could easily hire them, and make their expertise available to all members. This stuff isn't rocket science.

Bill