iOS 8 might be taking another PR hit this week, though hopefully in a more limited fashion. Some users have started reporting that iOS 8's option to reset their phone's settings erased iWork files stored in the beta version of iCloud Drive, with some left without an option to recover them at all.
The ongoing celebrity photo leaks all come back to one thing: iCloud security. The pics were allegedly snatched from iCloud, which has prompted Apple to shore up cloud storage security. A new report claims Apple wasn’t caught off-guard by the attacks, and knew about severe vulnerabilities as far back as March of this year.
Despite Apple's best efforts, it seems that the media circus surrounding its iCloud storage and backup service isn't going away any time soon. Especially not if the compromising photos keep on coming, which is what tabloid TMZ claims just happened to Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Hudgens, and, yes, Jennifer Lawrence again.
In their ongoing effort to better secure iCloud, Apple is taking additional steps to let us safeguard our stuff. In addition to two-factor authentication, which came back to iCloud not long ago, Apple is also letting us create app-specific passwords for various third-party apps that access iCloud. The feature will also become standard very soon.
We're not sure if you know about it yet (heavy sarcasm, there), but iOS 8 is coming. Soon, too. If you’ve not yet downloaded it, don’t jump for your phone just yet. If you’ve not backed up your phone, now is the time.
Apple’s iCloud has seen its share of bad press lately. In the wake of a scandal that saw celebrity photos leaked online — allegedly pulled from iCloud — scrutiny has been high. As iOS 8 rolls in, Apple has brought back one feature to make iCloud much more secure.
When Apple mentioned iCloud Drive at WWDC this year, some details were left out, namely pricing. Now, Apple has confirmed the pricing for each tier of their cloud storage service, giving us a view of just how it will match-up to other offerings you may have or be interested in.
In the wake of the release of several candid celebrity photos, Apple vowed to increase iCloud security. Whoever got hold of and distributed those photos is believed to have done so via Apple’s iCloud, which was trusted to be more secure than has been proven. A new alert is an early attempt at delivering on the promise of added security measures, but is it enough?
Apple's Tim Cook has finally spoken up regarding the recent scandal that rocked its iCloud service. The Chief Executive promised that the company will implement new alerts to notify users when something seems amiss on their iCloud accounts, while at the same time still categorically denying the company's complacency in securing users' data.
This Internet circus doesn't seem to have an end in sight just yet. Now a new player, or rather scapegoat, has entered the arena. Hackers who leaked compromising photos of Hollywood actresses are now believed to have used Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker or EPPB, a forensics software designed exactly for extracting user data from Apple's cloud service and, ironically, supposedly used by government and law enforcement agencies.
The hacking of celebrity accounts and the theft of explicit photos of a number of female stars has become even more serious, with word that at least one of the women was underage when the leaked pictures were taken. Several sites hosting the photos - which have already prompted an official statement from Apple early today, about the role iCloud played in their theft - have been notified that, in some shots, Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney was under the age of 18.
This afternoon, Apple has made an official statement on their investigation of "the theft of photos of certain celebrities." They make clear that when they "learned of the theft, we were outraged and immediately mobilized Apple’s engineers to discover the source." For those of you just learning of this leak of explicit photos, please head back to our safety guide for iCloud, Facebook, and Google+ as well.
