Apple ID

We haven’t quite yet worked out the pattern or the cause but we have received many reports of users waking up to find that their Apple ID has been locked, and plenty more are complaining on social media. Apple will lock accounts for many different reasons, usually when someone attempts to access an ID by entering their incorrect password too many times.

Access to the account can be restored by answering the security questions and entering a trusted phone number for validation. Users may also have to reset their passwords.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has apologized following a recent spate of account hacks in China. The company said ‘we are deeply apologetic about the inconvenience caused to our customers by these phishing scams’, which it said affected a ‘small number’ of user accounts.

Although details on exactly what happened have not been disclosed, Apple said that the affected accounts were not secured with two-factor authentication. This allowed criminals to phish for account credentials and then extract money using apps like Alipay, as reported last week.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Stolen Apple IDs have led to money being stolen from Alipay and WeChat Pay, China’s top mobile payment apps. The thefts took place from people who had their AliPay accounts linked to their Apple ID as a payment method …

Expand
Expanding
Close

The Apple ID websites appleid.apple.com and iforgot.apple.com are not working properly for some users, with reports of a variety of glitches starting from yesterday afternoon. Some are reporting that the sites are completely down for them, while others describe problems ranging from being trapped in password-update loops to problems updating verification devices.

I was able to verify one of the problems myself …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Three years ago to the day, Apple added in two-step verification to help improve user security. The verification method relied on the user having another device readily available to help authenticate a sign-in. As of today, Apple has taken that security further by now offering two-factor authentication to all users running iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan.

Both methods strive to increase a user’s foothold in security practices, but both go about doing so in very different ways. Luckily, Apple has chosen to make sure that the end user experience is phenomenal no matter what method they choose.

Getting started, or switching to the new two-factor authentication is not without it’s questions. Let’s dive in and resolve them.

Expand
Expanding
Close

CBC News is reporting that Apple would not disclose Apple ID passwords to a widow after presenting her late husband’s death certificates and her will. Instead, Apple demanded Peggy Bush, 72, to attain a court order in order to gain access to the account. See the video after the jump for the full story.

Initially, Apple said that a death certificate would suffice but the company changed its mind on followup calls, making this situation even more frustrating for Bush. She just wanted to play her iPad freemium card game in peace. Law regarding digital assets after death is murky, although Bush points out that death certificates enabled her to transfer pensions and benefits, making it seem ridiculous that Apple would also not cooperate with the same information.

Expand
Expanding
Close

After years of featuring the same, arguably stale design, Apple has redesigned the Apple ID web portal with a friendlier, modern look. The updated website now features product imagery including a girl wearing an Apple Watch Sport while using an iPhone and a MacBook can be seen with the logo illuminated in the background. The previous landing page featured app icons for iCloud, the App Store, iBooks, and other services that use Apple IDs, which were updated from iOS 6 to iOS 7 while the layout remained the same.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Image via Jon Brodkin

Tomorrow will mark three months since the launch of iOS 8.4 and Apple Music, and this means that the first free trial sign-ups will begin expiring. In its latest push to retain users, Apple has begun emailing users with set-to-expire trials as well as pushing notifications to their devices. As can be seen in the image above, the notification encourages users to renew.

As we learned in the summer, users who do not manually end their free trial with Apple Music will be automatically opted into continuing their subscription for either $9.99 or $14.99 (family plan). Users who wish to not continue with Apple Music can disable their subscriptions manually via their iTunes account page. Last week, our own Ben Lovejoy weighed the pros and cons of Apple Music in order to make his own renewal decision.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Editors note: Will Strafach (@chronic) runs a mobile security services firm helping enterprises protect their employees and confidential data from mobile threats. Fast and thorough analysis of the compiled binaries found within the HackingTeam dump was possible using their upcoming cloud-based iOS application analysis platform, using highly advanced pattern-matching and heuristic techniques to detect threats and privacy leaks within applications installed on enrolled mobile devices. He can be reached at will@wstraf.me if any readers have further questions or concerns regarding HackingTeam or other iOS malware. 

Written by: Will “Chronic” Strafach

There has been a lot of mixed information and speculation in the media recently in regards to the HackingTeam leak and what it all means for iOS users. Do the surveillance tools the group has reportedly provided to governments and law enforcement present a risk to the average iPhone and iPad user? That’s a question we’ve been getting a lot, so I will attempt to present all of the facts based on the recently leaked documents detailing the HackingTeam’s tools, as well as my opinion on the impact of certain aspects for iOS devices. Advanced users will already be aware of what I am about to state, but for everyone else, here’s what we’re dealing with:


Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple announced Photos last year during the WWDC. The Photos app along with iCloud Photo Library will allow you to store all of your photos in the cloud with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, provided you upgrade your iCloud storage space to accommodate your iCloud Photo Library. Photos will end up replacing Aperture and iPhoto. You can upload your pictures to iCloud Photo Library via iCloud.com. Currently this feature is in a public beta and this how-to article will discuss how to get a head start and upload your pictures to iCloud Photo Library before Photos becomes available for the Mac to the public.

Expand
Expanding
Close