In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company will now alert users via email and push notifications to their devices when someone tries to change the password to their account.
According to the report, Cook said hackers gained access to celebrities’ accounts by targeting them with phishing scams to obtain their user IDs and passwords, or by correctly answering security questions to obtain their passwords.
He reiterated that no one’s Apple ID or password was leaked from the company’s servers.
READ MORE: Apple denies iCloud security flaw to blame for celebrity photo hack
On Tuesday Apple confirmed that certain celebrity accounts were targeted in specific attacks, but denied reports that the leak stemmed from a security flaw in its iCloud services.
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“After more than 40 hours of investigation, we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet,” read the company’s statement.
“None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone.”
READ MORE: How to protect your data in the cloud
Cook said the company will now alert users when a device logs into an iCloud account for the first time – a security measure that social media sites like Facebook already use.
If users do receive a security alert they will be able to act right away by either changing the account password to stop an attacker from getting in, or alerting Apple’s security team. The new notification system will be implemented in about two weeks.
Cook stressed that users should make themselves more aware about the threat hackers pose, but admitted that Apple should do more to help educate its users.
“When I step back from this terrible scenario that happened and say what more could we have done, I think about the awareness piece,” said Cook.
“I think we have a responsibility to ratchet that up. That’s not really an engineering thing.”
The tech giant is urging users to enable two-step authentication on their accounts to enhance security.
Users can turn on two-step authentication for their Apple ID here.
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