Apple hires developer of World's Most Secure Messaging App

Developer behind world’s most secure messaging app joins Apple

Signal is the world's most secure messaging app. 
Photo: Open Whisper Systems

Apple is serious this time to enhance its iPhone security that even it can not hack. To achieve this the company has hired one of the key developers of  Signal — World's most secure, open source and encrypted messaging app.

Frederic Jacobs, who worked to develop Signal, announced today that he is joining Apple this summer to work as an intern in its CoreOS security team.

"I'm delighted to announce that I accepted an offer to be working with the CoreOS security team at Apple this summer," Jacobs tweeted Thursday.

 
One of the iPhone-maker’s most recent hires, Frederic Jacobs, was previously a lead developer for Signal, which has earned a name as one of the most secure messaging apps available. It’s so good, it’s become a favorite of former NSA-contractor Edward Snowden who says he uses it everyday.

Apple has not commented on the recent hire, but Jacobs sent out a tweet on Thursday morning detailing his new post with Apple’s Core OS security team. The position is an internship but no details were given on how long Jacobs will be working in Cupertino.

Plans to make the iPhone security tougher than ever were supposedly underway even before the FBI’s demands that Apple unlock the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone. In an appearance on ABC’s World News Tonight Tim Cook stated that creating such a tool would be like the software version of cancer.

Jacobs spent the last two and a half years as a security engineer at Signal-creator, Open Whisper Systems, where he worked on the end-to-end encryption for the iOS app. What Jacobs’ new role at Apple will entail is under wraps, but he could be part of the team that implements a new backup strategy for iCloud authentication that would make it impossible even for Apple to decrypt.

Apple to build 'Unhackable' Services

The reason behind the Apple's hiring is quite clear as the company is currently fighting a US court order asking Apple to help the FBI unlock iPhone 5C of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook.

Basically, Apple is deliberately forced to create the special, backdoored version of iOS, so that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) may be able to Brute Force the passcode on Farook's iPhone without losing the data stored in it.

However, Apple CEO Tim Cook has already refused to provide such a backdoor into the iPhone that would degrade the privacy and security of all iPhone users.

If comply with the court order, the company would be flooded by the FBI and the CIA requests to unlock more iPhones of criminals in near future and the recent request made by the United States government to unlock 12 more iPhones would be just a starter.

But, in an effort to eliminate the chance for government and intelligence agencies for demanding backdoors, the company is removing its own ability to do that, for which they are hiring new interns in its core security team.

Apple found Jacobs a good fit for this, as he had spent two and half years with Open Whisper Systems, the company behind Signal, before leaving the company earlier this year.

Apple CEO defies US court order to unlock iPhone

Apple chief Tim Cook has rejected a judge's order to help the FBI break into an iPhone used by an attacker in the San Bernardino shooting, warning it was "too dangerous" to create such a backdoor to the smartphone.

Apple has announced it plans to oppose an order from a U.S. judge to help the FBI access data on a phone belonging to San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook.

“The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers,” Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a statement. “We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.”

The FBI hope to gain access to an iPhone that belonged to Farook, one of the two shooters that killed 14 people – including one gay man – in San Bernardino last December. Farook acted with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, to carry out the horrendous attack.

Cook’s statement comes after U.S. District Judge Sheri Pym said that Apple must provide “reasonable technical assistance” to the FBI in accessing Farook’s iPhone.

• Specifically, they want Apple to remove the system that deletes the phone’s data after 10 incorrect passcode attempts, and create software to rapidly try different passcode combinations.

“The U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone,” Cook wrote. “In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.”

The CEO goes on to argue that not only would creating the software put users at risk in case it ever got into the hands of criminals, but that he’d rather the U.S. government didn’t have access to it either.

“The implications of the government’s demands are chilling,” he said. “If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. 

The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.”

-->"We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack," Apple said."The implications of the government's demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone's device to capture their data."

-- >Cook also warned that if Apple complied with the order, the government could demand surveillance software to intercept, access health and financial data, track users' location or access a phone's microphone or camera without the user's knowledge.