Apple Inc. has maintained that the infamous theft of celebrity photos from its iCloud backup service is not its fault, instead blaming hackers for being able to figure out user passwords or using phishing scams to get user IDs and passwords.
However, the company isn’t sitting quiet. Instead it is making moves to toughen its security in a number of ways. GigaOM reported that the company will soon start sending out email and push notifications warning users if someone is trying to restore their iCloud data to a new device — this in addition to warnings if someone tries to change a password or log into an account from a new device.
In addition it will start using two-factor authentication for iCloud access. It’s only available now as an option for iTunes.
Cook told the Wall Street Journal that the upcoming iOS 8 upgrade will urge Apple subscribers to use two-factor authentication.
He also told the publication that user awareness and not technology is the solution to better security. “When I step back from this terrible scenario that happened and say what more could we have done, I think about the awareness piece,” he said. “I think we have a responsibility to ratchet that up. That’s not really an engineering thing.”