14 DAY TRIAL // Apple says the FaceTime bug fix that was originally expected to launch this week would actually land sometime in the coming days.
A bug in FaceTime allowed pretty much anyone to spy on users even when they didn’t answer calls. The eavesdropping bug was rapidly acknowledged by Apple, who pulled Group FaceTime completely to prevent further exploits, promising a fix by the end of the week.
But in a statement for MacRumors, Apple now says that the fix is being tested internally, only that it won’t be released this week, with the target now being the next one.
“We have fixed the Group FaceTime security bug on Apple's servers and we will issue a software update to re-enable the feature for users next week. We thank the Thompson family for reporting the bug. We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue. We appreciate everyone's patience as we complete this process,” the company said.
Bug originally ignored
Just as expected, the Cupertino-based tech giant goes on to reiterate its commitment to improving security and privacy.
“We want to assure our customers that as soon as our engineering team became aware of the details necessary to reproduce the bug, they quickly disabled Group FaceTime and began work on the fix. We are committed to improving the process by which we receive and escalate these reports, in order to get them to the right people as fast as possible. We take the security of our products extremely seriously and we are committed to continuing to earn the trust Apple customers place in us,” it adds.
And while it’s not a surprise that Apple highlights its efforts to keep users protected, the company hasn’t explained why it ignored the original bug report that it received one week before the issue went public.
Needless to say, acknowledging the bug earlier would have helped Apple keep users protected without pulling the Group FaceTime feature, but I guess we’ll never see the company discuss this more delicate topic.