Apple Enhancing Apple ID Safety by Enforcing Security Question Requirements
The Next Web reports that Apple has begun enhancing the security of users' Apple ID accounts, requiring those who have do not have alternate email addresses and security questions on file to add them.
In the past 24 hours, Apple appears to have started prompting iOS devices owners and those with Apple IDs within iTunes to make their accounts more secure, requiring them to pick three security questions and enter their answers when they download a new app.
The company is also asking users to enter a backup email address, in order to better protect their device but also their account (which is tied to Apple’s Retail website and all of its media services).
Hacking of iTunes Store accounts has been a long-standing complaint from a number of users, but with over 225 million user accounts, they make for a popular target for phishing, brute force hacking, and other methods. The company has occasionally taken steps to improve account security such as last August's addition of confirmation emails when content is purchased from a previously-unused device, and the company undoubtedly evaluates its security practices on an ongoing basis.
Popular Stories
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...
Top Rated Comments
Right, because inevitably your first reaction to your security questions after you forget your password is "Why yes, my first school was tangerine trees." :rolleyes:
It would be more annoying if your Apple ID got hacked :p
Do users realize that the best strategy is to give non-sequitur responses to this kind of question: The first school you attended was: tangerine trees.
Distinguishing between a new purchase and an update makes the most sense to me.
I don't see why updates even require the password. Is there any risk just allowing updates to occur as soon as you push the "update all" button? The apps are already on the device. Do I really want the downloads interrupted half way through with a dialog for one of the apps asking me to confirm that I'm still over 18? Is there anyone using Apple products that ages in reverse?
I agree with the extra security questions for any new purchase, however.