On September 9th, Apple unveiled the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. These new iPhones include the latest that Apple has to
offer in its mobile phone. With these iPhones comes iOS 8, Apple’s latest mobile operating system. iOS 8 includes, among other
features, even more enhancements that involve iCloud, including iCloud Photo Library, which stores your photos in the cloud.
A week before the announcement of the new phones, however, Apple had other matters to worry about. Celebrity nudes had leaked on line,
and it looked like iCloud was the culprit. Was Apple’s central cloud service to blame for the issue? Was there a huge security hole that
could let anyone’s photos leak?
Turns out, that wasn’t the case. In fact, what lead to the leak of the celebrity photos is likely the same weakness that plagues many on line systems.
Apple has already denied that a general iCloud breach is what lead to the release of the photos. But it also said that the attacks were
directly targeted at the celebrities in question. In short, people who were interested in getting into their accounts gathered information
to try and brute force their way in to get whatever information they could.
Could this ever happen to you? It may already have.
Ever come across an email or link that seems to go to a legitimate site but that asks you to log in for something questionable? It’s
possibly a fishing scam. We get hundreds of these spam mails a week, yet while most of us will just delete them, some of us fall for
these and end up giving our login information to strangers.
Another tactic used in the so-called hack was social engineering. This is when individuals manipulate a potential target into performing
actions or divulging secret information in an attempt to take advantage of them. Again, this may sound familiar. Have you heard about
the latest scams involving people calling about alleged issues on your computer? It’s fake, but they’re trying to get you to give them access,
at which point you would then be at their mercy.
In the end, each of us is just as vulnerable as the celebrities involved in this hack. Yet, most of us are not high-profile enough
to warrant the attention of people desperate to see our private photos. Still, we should make ourselves aware of different tactics so
that we can avoid having our own private data breached.
If you are using iCloud, one additional step you can take to secure your data is to enable two step verification.
This will prevent new computers or devices from logging into your account without first needing a verification code sent
to your device. For example, if you try to log into your iCloud account from a new computer, such as a computer at a friend’s house,
you’ll be asked to enter a 4-digit code that will be sent to your iPhone. If that code isn’t enter, you can’t log in.
We all are as vulnerable as celebrities when it comes to these things. But the more you know, the safer you are.
Source: http://www.todaysiphone.com/
0 comments:
Post a Comment