Apple, Google hire notable hackers

Apple and Google have hired noted hackers in the past week who have penetrated their respective security settings.

News emerged at the weekend that Nicholas Allegra, who created the ‘JailBreakMe' website that allowed iPhone users to jailbreak their devices by simply visiting the website, had joined the company. Apple issued a patch for the vulnerability in July but this was quickly bypassed and at the time of writing, the website is still live.

Allegra confirmed on his Twitter account that he will be starting an internship with Apple this week. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said that it was understandable that Apple would rather have the man behind the JailBreakMe website working for them rather than exposing their security weaknesses.

He said: “What is going to change now Apple has made jailbreaking expert Nicholas Allegra an intern? Well, I would imagine that they'll be strongly encouraging him to share with them any details of security flaws he finds with their software, rather than updating his drive-by jailbreaking website.

“That way they'll be able to work on patching any vulnerabilities he discovers before they are made public. I'm sure they'll be particularly keen to prevent Allegra from publishing details on how to jailbreak the next incarnation of iOS, version 5.0, or the much-mooted iPhone 5. From Apple's point of view it's a case of: If you can't beat ‘em, hire ‘em.”

Also, thinq.co.uk reported that Florian Rohrweck, who accessed code behind Google's applications and revealed details of Google+ before it was released, has joined the search engine to work on improving the security of the company's various web-based services.

Posting at stilbruch.at, Rohrweck said: “Florian Rohrweck has gone Google. Or at least I will be have gone soon. Or something like that. I will post new articles again. Not so much about leaks but more about the dark arts of mastering Google products and APIs. Or something else. Time will tell!

“Thanks to all of you, who supported me on my way and made my work so much fun and enjoyable! You guys are awesome!”

This article originally appeared at scmagazineuk.com