Fortnite gamer found Apple FaceTime bug days before story blew up
- 5 years ago
TUCSON, ARIZONA — A teenager detected a major FaceTime Apple security flaw a week before the company made the news public, reports The New York Times.
A fourteen-year-old spotted a massive Apple FaceTime bug over one week before news of it went viral while discussing Fornite gaming strategy with friends.
Now, for those of you not in the know, Apple recently announced its fixing a bug that let people eavesdrop on unknowing call recipients.
It doesn't take a skilled hacker to do it either. All you have to do is call someone on FaceTime, add another individual to the call and voila! The app automatically assumes it's an active group call and the first person's microphone becomes activated — even if they haven't picked up the phone.
Apple has disabled group FaceTimes while they are fixing the issue. However, users are now claiming actions could've been taken earlier had they listened to the teenage Fortnite fan and his concerned mother.
According to The New York Times, fourteen-year-old Grant Thompson and his mother Michele Thompson discovered the glitch a more than a week before the news of it blew up. Grant was using a group FaceTime call to discuss Fortnite strategy with friends when he discovered the flaw.
His mother, an Arizona lawyer, saw the potential risks of this security flaw and decided to report it to the company. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to be heard.
Michele tweeted at the tech company and sent them several emails warning them about the glitch but got no response. Finally, she sent them a fax and an email with a video of her and her son demonstrating the flaw.
The company replied asking her to file the report through Apple's developer site. After all that, Michele, the concerned Apple customer, had to register as an Apple developer to report the glitch her son discovered.
The company responded but they didn't fix the bug. Now that the news has gone viral, Michele hopes her son can get a little bit of credit for having detected the security flaw early.
She told CNN, "Apple should reward people for reporting things of this nature — not just reward the developers or the people who are savvy with tech. I think just thanking him would be great."
A fourteen-year-old spotted a massive Apple FaceTime bug over one week before news of it went viral while discussing Fornite gaming strategy with friends.
Now, for those of you not in the know, Apple recently announced its fixing a bug that let people eavesdrop on unknowing call recipients.
It doesn't take a skilled hacker to do it either. All you have to do is call someone on FaceTime, add another individual to the call and voila! The app automatically assumes it's an active group call and the first person's microphone becomes activated — even if they haven't picked up the phone.
Apple has disabled group FaceTimes while they are fixing the issue. However, users are now claiming actions could've been taken earlier had they listened to the teenage Fortnite fan and his concerned mother.
According to The New York Times, fourteen-year-old Grant Thompson and his mother Michele Thompson discovered the glitch a more than a week before the news of it blew up. Grant was using a group FaceTime call to discuss Fortnite strategy with friends when he discovered the flaw.
His mother, an Arizona lawyer, saw the potential risks of this security flaw and decided to report it to the company. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to be heard.
Michele tweeted at the tech company and sent them several emails warning them about the glitch but got no response. Finally, she sent them a fax and an email with a video of her and her son demonstrating the flaw.
The company replied asking her to file the report through Apple's developer site. After all that, Michele, the concerned Apple customer, had to register as an Apple developer to report the glitch her son discovered.
The company responded but they didn't fix the bug. Now that the news has gone viral, Michele hopes her son can get a little bit of credit for having detected the security flaw early.
She told CNN, "Apple should reward people for reporting things of this nature — not just reward the developers or the people who are savvy with tech. I think just thanking him would be great."