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Apple fixes “Find My iPhone” exploit

02 Sep 2014 News
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Apple fixes “Find My iPhone” exploit

By now everyone has probably heard about how Anonymous 4chan hackers stole nude photos of certain celebrities (Jennifer Lawrence, Victoria Justice, Kim Kardashian, Kirsten Dunst, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Rhianna, and Kate Upton, among others) and leaked some of them online. Others they used to attempt blackmail. It’s been suggested that the hacker(s) got the images from iCloud, but no one is certain as to how they gained access. Apple has apparently patched an exploit in Find My iPhone that the hackers may have have used to gain access. Just the day before this happened, code for an AppleID password brute force proof-of-concept was uploaded to GitHub, a code-hosting site. The code allowed hackers to flood the site with password attempts without getting locked out. This gave hackers time to use brute forcing techniques to guess the passwords of those accounts. All the hackers would need to know is the username.

Apple has now made a patch for this exploit and any attempts to gain access to accounts using brute force will be met with a lockout. 

If you don’t feel safe using iCloud to store your photos or other sensitive information, there is a way to disable Apple iCloud. First, save all of your photos to your PC or Mac. Go to your Settings on your device (System Preference on Mac) > open the iCloud category > switch off Photostream. Do this on all of your devices. If you’d like a less drastic option, you can use the Two Factor Authentication. This requires both your password and a PIN before being accessed by an unknown device. To turn on TFA, go to My Apple ID > choose “Manage your Apple ID and sign in” > choose “Password and Security” > under “Two-Step Verification” choose “Get Started” and then follow the instructions.

 

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rebecca

Rebecca, a former police officer, is an experienced writer and editor. She has used all kinds of different tech and prefers Apple products and apps. Her areas of expertise are in all things Apple, health and fitness, the Paleo lifestyle, and legal topics.