Tim Cook has met with a top Chinese government official in Beijing, to discuss the reported “man-in-the-middle” phishing attack on iCloud users in China, reportedly being carried out by authorities.
While very few details of the meeting have been made public, it is reported by the Chinese media that it took place on Wednesday in Zhongnanhai, the Beijing complex which houses China’s central government.
Cook and Vice Premier Ma Kai discussed user privacy and “strengthening cooperation” going forward.
The Chinese government has strongly refuted claims that it was involved in the hack. According to anti-censorship watchdog group GreatFire.org, the government has previously been behind attempted hacks of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Github.
The current attack reportedly relates to images and videos of the current Hong Kong protests being shared on the mainland, and is aimed at allowing the Chinese authorities to monitor and block certain content from users.
In the past China’s state-run media has accused Apple of using both iCloud and the “Find My iPhone” function to spy on its citizens. Recently Apple was made to move iCloud in China over to state-run servers.
In the aftermath of the recent hack, Apple has reiterated to users how they can protect themselves from phishing attacks, with a simple PSA page that shows how web surfers can verify the authenticity of any website.
Source: Reuters
