14 DAY TRIAL // A FaceTime bug that was disclosed earlier this week has allegedly been used by someone to secretly listen to a conversation between a lawyer and his client.
Attorney Larry Williams II says an unknown person spied on his client during a deposition, so he’s now suing Apple and asking for punitive damages. As reported by Bloomberg, the Cupertino-based tech giant is sued for negligence, product liability, misrepresentation and warranty breach.
The lawyer explained that the vulnerability allowed the violation of privacy during “one’s most intimate conversation without consent.”
The security flaw, which Apple has already acknowledged, allowed pretty much anyone to hear and see contacts on FaceTime even if they didn’t answer calls. Apple promised a fix and temporarily pulled Group FaceTime in an attempt to prevent further exploits.
Apple ignored the bug
While users can disable FaceTime completely if they want to make sure that they are protected until Apple comes up with a fix, security experts warn that this bug is living proof nobody is secure online.
“Even though Apple has gone through great strides to protect their user's information, this latest bug is yet another reinforcement that privacy continues to remain a major concern regardless of your company's size or security and privacy investments,” George Gerchow, CSO of SumoLogic, told us.
“It's also another reminder that nobody's data is 100 percent safe and that it's all of our responsibility to be more diligent in protecting the privacy of our customers' sensitive information against future vulnerabilities.”
The Cupertino-based tech giant also faces criticism that it mishandled his bug, as the company has apparently been warned of the issue one week before it went public. However, Apple reportedly ignored the security warnings and left the bug unresolved.
Apple hasn’t offered a statement on the lawsuit, and the company is expected to release a fix for the FaceTime bug sometime this week.