CUPERTINO, Calif., Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Apple's Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said the company plans to strengthen its security alerts when it comes to users accessing their account from new devices following the leak of hundreds of private female celebrities photos over the weekend.
Cook's comments on the leak came after Apple revealed hackers obtained access to the celebrities accounts by correctly guessing their password through "Phishing" -- the act of posing as someone who has forgotten their username and password -- and not because of an iCloud breach like it was originally reported.
He added that none of the Apple IDs and passwords used to hack the celebrities accounts leaked from Apple's servers.
Cook said Apple will roll out a new notification system in two weeks in which users will receive both push notifications and emails when someone tries "to change an account password, restore iCloud data to a new device, or when a device logs into an account for the first time," the Wall Street Journal reported.
In the current system, Apple alerts users with an email when someone tries to change a password or logs into an account from a new device for the first time, but no notifications are sent for the restoring of iCloud data.
The new system will allow users to take control of their account as soon as it has been compromised by changing their passwords or alerting Apple's security team.
"When I step back from this terrible scenario that happened and say what more could we have done, I think about the awareness piece," Cook said. "I think we have a responsibility to ratchet that up. That's not really an engineering thing."
Cook said Apple is working with law enforcement in an effort to get to the bottom of the leaked photos case because "we are as outraged if not more so than they are."
He added that Apple plans to encourage people to turn on the existent two-factor authentication system -- a security measure that requires that the users verify two out of three things including a password, a one-time four-key code or a long access key to access a device -- when the company unveils a new iOS later this month.
Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Lea Michele were among the celebrities targeted by hackers.
