A major Apple security breach made headlines on Monday, as reports surfaced that iPhones and iPads can secretly play audio without an owner’s permission through FaceTime. Letting callers hear audio before a user actually answers the phone call is a huge problem, one that the company is scrambling to fix as the bad press spreads.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a 14-year-old first discovered the bug while trying to dab on some washed gamers with the massively popular online game Fortnite.
Grant Thompson, a teenage Tuscon native, was setting up a FaceTime chat with some friends he wanted to play Fortnite with when he “stumbled” onto the major security flaw. Thompson apparently could hear audio from his friends before they answered the call, which he thought was a bit of a problem. Like any responsible teen, he told his mother about the issue.
The two then apparently tried to tell Apple about the issue, though they were less than responsive about the problem. The WSJ noted the two sides “traded a few emails” but nothing was really done until the problem was noted and drew a ton of attention on Twitter. Apple has disabled the Group FaceTime feature and is working on a fix, but as more information comes out about the bug it seems like at least one gamer tried to give the tech giant a head’s up about the issue.
[Via Kotaku]