New York state begins probe into Apple's FaceTime vulnerability

New York state is launching an investigation into whether Apple failed to properly warn customers about a Group FaceTime vulnerability that allowed people to spy on others.

The probe was announced on Wednesday by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Letitia James, Reuters said. In a statement, Cuomo demanded a "full accounting of the facts" to ensure businesses like Apple are following the state's consumer protection laws.

Apple is already facing a private lawsuit in Texas from a lawyer claiming the glitch let someone eavesdrop on a client call. Specifically, he said an intrusion happened while he was taking testimony.

The vulnerability, which extends through iOS 12.1, first gained real publicity on Monday. It was later discovered, however, that Apple had been warned about the problem over a week ago, raising the question of why it didn't respond sooner.

For the time being Apple has disabled Group FaceTime. It's also working on a patch for iOS devices that should go live later this week.

26 Comments

coolfactor 2333 comments · 20 Years

About 5 years ago

I support this. If Apple was aware of the situation, but failed to take precautions until *after* they received media attention, then they should be held accountable.

sflocal 6135 comments · 16 Years

It's a probe, nothing more. Either they will find enough evidence during discovery to show that Apple knowingly hid the vulnerability, or they will decide that Apple acted as quickly as it could.

I don't see anything to read here really. About the only thing that reacts faster than fixing the problem are the ambulance-chasing attorneys that see an opportunity.

wanderso 116 comments · 15 Years

Classic money grab attempt from New York and to capture headlines for political reasons.

I wish it really was purely about consumer protection.

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

coolfactor said:

I support this. If Apple was aware of the situation, but failed to take precautions until *after* they received media attention, then they should be held accountable.

So prove you were damaged by this. Prove you were eavesdropped upon. Go ahead, prove it. We’ll wait.

ericthehalfbee 4489 comments · 13 Years

coolfactor said:

I support this. If Apple was aware of the situation, but failed to take precautions until *after* they received media attention, then they should be held accountable.

You realize that bugs are commonly known about (or reported) long before a company fixes them, right? It’s common practice to keep things secret while you’re working on a fix. You don’t want the public (or bad actors) to know about the issue. Then you can release a fix before people even know there was a problem.

No doubt Apple was working on a fix when this news broke, and disabled FaceTime only after it became public. If this news story wasn’t reported it’s likely the next iOS release would have fixed the issue and nobody would have been the wiser.

I don’t see how Apple did anything wrong.