Apple rewards teenager
The Tucson teen who found a glitch in FaceTime’s group chat that could turn iPhones into spying devices has been rewarded for his discovery.
The Tucson teen who found a glitch in FaceTime’s group chat that could turn iPhones into spying devices has been rewarded by Apple Inc. for his discovery.
The tech giant paid Grant Thompson, 14, an undisclosed sum for finding the bug, as well as contributed money towards his education.
Apple has said it awards bounties of up to $200,000 to people who discover serious breaches.
The Catalina Foothills High School freshman was also credited in Apple’s security update announcement, along with Daven Morris of Texas.
“We want to thank Apple for giving credit to Grant in the security update, meeting with us ... and awarding Grant for his discovery,” his mother, Michele Thompson, said in a text message. “We intend to use any money received towards future college expenses.”
Apple customers should install the 12.1.4 security update on their iPhone, iPad or iMac soon, experts say.
Go to Settings > General > Software Update. Choose Download and Install. The device must have at least 50 percent battery or be plugged in.
“We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue,” Apple said in a statement.
Grant Thompson was preparing to play the popular video game Fortnite with friends in January when he noticed the glitch.
While trying to start a group chat before the game, Thompson discovered his iPhone transmitted audio to and from his friend’s phone while the call
was ringing, even when his friend failed to accept the FaceTime call.
The friend who hadn’t accepted Thompson’s call was shocked to hear Thompson’s voice ask, “What’s up?”
“All three of us (friends) spent the next half an hour testing to see if it really was a glitch or just some accident,” Thompson said.
He and his sister replicated the problem for their mother.
“I took it seriously because I realized there were some major security implications,” said Michele Thompson, an attorney.
For more than a week his mother tried to contact Apple about the safety concern without success.
She called Apple customer support, tagged Apple in Facebook posts, sent tweets, registered as a developer to submit a warning through Apple’s bug reporting website, and even faxed a letter on her law firm’s letterhead to Apple’s general counsel.
After industry news site 9to5Mac reported the glitch, Apple announced it had temporarily disabled the group-chat function in FaceTime and would deploy a software update to fix the vulnerability.
The company later got in touch with the family.
The Thompsons said they still plan to use Apple products but will be more wary in the future.
“It’s definitely taught me how scary technology can be,” Grant Thompson said. “Even though Apple is generally a safe company that tries to keep your privacy secure, sometimes glitches like this fall through the cracks and can be abused by many people.”