Apple apologized for a security flaw in its FaceTime video-chat system and said a software fix is coming this week, as the iPhone maker sought to assure customers it moved fast to address an embarrassing vulnerability that drew the attention of government officials.

“We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all who were concerned about this security issue,” an Apple spokesman said in a statement Friday. “We appreciate everyone’s patience as we complete this process.”

The apology came two days after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Letitia James said the state would investigate Apple’s response to a bug that allowed one FaceTime user calling another in a group conversation to eavesdrop while the recipient’s device was still ringing. The bug affected FaceTime running on iPhones, iPads and Macs.The glitch was a high-profile setback for a company that has marketed the security and privacy of its devices, and has criticized other technology companies for collecting users’ personal data.

Apple last week punished Facebook and Google, a division of Alphabet, for violating its developer policies by releasing apps that gathered information from customers using Apple devices in exchange for compensation.

In its statement Friday, Apple thanked an Arizona teenager and his mother for shedding light on the bug. Though the family reported it more than a week ago, Apple didn’t disable the Group FaceTime feature linked to the problem until Jan. 28, when the issue blew up on social media.

An Apple spokesman didn’t respond to questions about whether the Thompson family of Tucson, Ariz., would be rewarded for their work. Michele Thompson had hoped her 14-year-old son, who discovered the issue, might secure a payout from Apple, which has offered cash bounties since 2016 to researchers who discover significant bugs.

Apple said its engineering team quickly disabled Group FaceTime after it became aware of the bug and began working quickly to fix the issue. It added that the company is committed to improving the process for receiving and responding to reports of software bugs.

Thompson said she tried to communicate the problem to Apple through social media, fax and phone but struggled to get the attention of the tech giant’s security team. She eventually registered as a developer to submit the bug.

Apologies, once rare for Apple, have become more common. In December 2017, it issued an apology for a software feature that slowed the performance of iPhones with older batteries. The company is facing civil litigation over that issue in U.S. District Court in Northern California.

“We have fixed the Group FaceTime security bug on Apple’s servers and we will issue a software update to re-enable the feature for users next week,” Apple said.

“We thank the Thompson family for reporting the bug.”

Apple apologized for the flaw in its FaceTime app that enabled a user calling another in a group video-chat to eavesdrop while the recipient’s device was ringing. 

Brian Skoloff, the associated press

LEFT: Grant Thompson and his mother, Michele, look at an iPhone in the family’s kitchen in Tucson, Ariz., last week. The 14-year-old stumbled upon a bug in the

iPhone’s FaceTime group-chatting feature in January while calling his friends to play a video game. With the bug, a FaceTime group-chat user calling another iPhone, iPad or Mac computer could hear audio, even if the receiver did not accept the call.

BELOW: Apple apologized for the flaw in its FaceTime app that enabled a user calling another in a group video-chat to eavesdrop while the recipient’s device was ringing.

Brian Skoloff, the associated press