Apple making app-specific passwords mandatory to access iCloud with third-party apps

Dan Pye
By Dan Pye  - News Editor
Apple making app-specific passwords mandatory to access iCloud with third-party apps

Starting June 15, Apple is making it mandatory for users to set unique passwords for third-party apps before they can access a user’s iCloud data, according to email notices sent out by Apple Support. To create the app-specific passwords, users will have to enable two-factor authentication for their Apple ID and generate passwords for any third-party app accessing mail, contact and calendar items.

Apple making app-specific passwords mandatory to access iCloud with third-party apps

The change can be made in the App-Specific Passwords section under the Security heading ifter logging in to the Apple ID account page. While Apple has had two-factor authentication available for about four years now, the company has been taking more steps in recent months to encourage users to switch over to it, enabling it by default in iOS 10.3, and now making it mandatory for users of third-party apps — ostensibly to protect a user’s Apple ID password from being unwittingly compromised by a third-party app whose security the company has less control over.

[via Apple Insider]

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By Dan Pye News Editor
Dan Pye was a news editor at iLounge. He's been involved with technology his whole life, and started writing about it in 2009. He's written about everything from iPhone and iPad cases to Apple TV accessories.