Just in case you haven’t heard, hackers managed to hack into journalist Mat Honan’s iCloud account. After hacking was complete, Honan’s entire digital life was wiped out. Apple is responding to the hack by freezing all iCloud password changes. If you try to access your iCloud account right now, you will not be able to change your password no matter how hard you try. This decree from Apple comes after Honan pointed out that hackers changed his iCloud password quite easily using the “Find My Mac” feature.

Some sources say that Apple is uncertain how to deal with the hacker crisis. As a result, the account freezing will buy the company some time for now. Others believe that Apple is working on an iCloud password fix. Either way, Apple needs to step up iCloud security if users are to feel safe using the Cloud once more.


Not Just Frozen Passwords

Prior to Apple’s freezing announcement, iCloud users could change passwords via telephone. This is no longer the case. All attempts to change an iCloud password right now have been blocked. But, it’s safe to assume that iCloud users won’t be able to change passwords through the phone any longer. After all, anyone can call on your behalf and change your password. All that’s really needed to accomplish this task is some basic information about you.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the Honan story, you may not know that hackers gained access to Honan’s account through Amazon. By obtaining the last few digits of the victim’s credit card, hackers were able to gather lots of information from Amazon about Honan. After gaining these details, the hackers tapped into Honan’s iCloud account and wiped it clean – all of it. They accomplished this task by changing Honan’s password.

More Cloud Security Is Needed – Quick!

It’s easy to assume that the Cloud is not a safe place. In reality, the Cloud can be a safe place if companies like Apple put additional security measures in order. It’s not enough to ask a user to provide basic details like an address and phone number. Heck, even credit card numbers are easy to find on the Internet today. What companies like Apple have to do is make it impossible for hackers to gain password information. Further, companies have to be able to stop hackers once they have gained access to a Cloud account (something Apple can’t currently do).

In any case, if you decide that you need to change your iCloud password this week, you are out of luck. Hopefully, you haven’t forgotten your password. If you have, you will need to sit tight until Apple figures out a course of action. Right now, it looks like the company doesn’t have too much in the way of additional security measures in place. But, with a hacking debacle like this one, Apple will certainly have to calm its thousands of users somehow. Look for Apple iCloud security updates on this blog soon – I’ll keep you posted.