Apple will reward 14-year old who discovered the group FaceTime bug

Together with the release of a software update to fix a major bug in its Facetime app, Apple said it would reward the 14-year old who first discovered the issue.

About a week ago, it was discovered that a caller can unwittingly hear and even see what your phone camera can see via a group Facetime call without you having to accept the call.

The bug was discovered by a Tucson, Arizona high school student Grant Thompson, who with his mother Michele led Apple to turn off FaceTime group chat as its engineers investigated the issue.

Apple will be compensating Thompson under their bugs bounty program along with additional unspecified gifts to support his education.

Apple also formally credited Thompson and Daven Morris from Arlington, Texas in the release notes to its latest iPhone software update.

“In addition to addressing the bug that was reported, our team conducted a thorough security audit of the FaceTime service and made additional updates to both the FaceTime app and server to improve security,” Apple said in a statement.

However, two key US House of Representatives Democrats on Tuesday asked Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook to answer questions about the bug, saying they were “deeply troubled” over how long it took Apple to address the security flaw.

The company said last week it was planning to improve how it handles reports of software bugs.

Related reading:

[via Malay Mail]