The IT Nerd

Apple is now in very big trouble. The U.S. Committee on Energy & Commerce is now seeking answers from Apple over the Group FaceTime flaw that allowed people to eavesdrop on conversations:

The Committee Chairs requested written responses to a series of questions by no later than February 19, 2019, including:

• When did your company first identify the Group FaceTime vulnerability that enabled individuals to access the camera and microphone of devices before accepting a FaceTime call?  Did your company identify the vulnerability before being notified by Mr. Thompson’s mother?  Did any other customer notify Apple of the vulnerability?
• Please provide a timeline of exactly what steps were taken and when they were taken to address the vulnerability after it was initially identified.
• What steps are being taken to identify which FaceTime users’ privacy interests were violated using the vulnerability?  Does Apple intend to notify and compensate those consumers for the violation?  When will Apple provide notification to affected consumers?
• Are there other vulnerabilities in Apple devices and applications that currently or potentially could result in unauthorized access to microphones and/or cameras? 

The letter is available HERE.

This is a huge problem. If these guys don’t like Apple’s responses, you can bet that congressional hearings will follow. And those won’t go well for Apple. So if I were Tim Cook, I’d get that software fix out ASAP, and be completely transparent about what happened here with this bug. By not doing this, Apple risks tarnishing their brand more than it already has.

This entry was posted on February 5, 2019 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.