Key Apple security expert Jon Callas leaves to take job with ACLU
One of Apple's senior security specialists, Jon Callas, has reportedly jumped ship to work at the American Civil Liberties Union -- and for a much smaller salary.
Callas started a two-year stint as an ACLU technology fellow on Monday, Reuters said. While at Apple, he was in charge of a team that hacked into pre-release products to expose any vulnerabilities.
He may be better known, however, for co-founding PGP Corp. and Silent Circle, and being the chief scientist at Phil Zimmermann's original PGP Inc. PGP -- Pretty Good Privacy -- is one of the most famous encryption standards in use.
At the ACLU Callas is expected to provide input on fairness and transparency in AI, and help fight governments that demand access to tech platforms for surveillance.
The move should, then, indirectly help Apple, which has adopted a tough stance on privacy in the U.S. The company uses strong encryption for both hardware and online communications, much to the chagrin of law enforcement and spy agencies, which have complained about devices and services "going dark" even when there's legal backing for a search.
Some people, like U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, have called on Apple to offer some form of backdoor access, but Apple has resisted, noting that any backdoor would likely be discovered and exploited by criminals and foreign governments.
Most infamously, Apple fought with the U.S. Department of Justice over accessing the iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, only for the DOJ to abandon the case when the FBI succeeded with a third-party forensics solution.
Callas could play a role in influencing federal privacy legislation born out of scandals like Equifax and Cambridge Analytica.
Callas started a two-year stint as an ACLU technology fellow on Monday, Reuters said. While at Apple, he was in charge of a team that hacked into pre-release products to expose any vulnerabilities.
He may be better known, however, for co-founding PGP Corp. and Silent Circle, and being the chief scientist at Phil Zimmermann's original PGP Inc. PGP -- Pretty Good Privacy -- is one of the most famous encryption standards in use.
At the ACLU Callas is expected to provide input on fairness and transparency in AI, and help fight governments that demand access to tech platforms for surveillance.
The move should, then, indirectly help Apple, which has adopted a tough stance on privacy in the U.S. The company uses strong encryption for both hardware and online communications, much to the chagrin of law enforcement and spy agencies, which have complained about devices and services "going dark" even when there's legal backing for a search.
Some people, like U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, have called on Apple to offer some form of backdoor access, but Apple has resisted, noting that any backdoor would likely be discovered and exploited by criminals and foreign governments.
Most infamously, Apple fought with the U.S. Department of Justice over accessing the iPhone 5c of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, only for the DOJ to abandon the case when the FBI succeeded with a third-party forensics solution.
Callas could play a role in influencing federal privacy legislation born out of scandals like Equifax and Cambridge Analytica.
Comments
Good for him. It takes a man of integrity to walk away from a top job with a leading company and big salary to match and go do something that pays less, but is the right thing to do.
Shakespeare had it right about lawyers.
I should also point out that this guy sounds pretty admirable, even if, ironically, he plans to hang out with a bunch of lawyers.
Best of luck to him.
As far as Mr. Callas goes, I'm sure there are lots of non-financial, quality-of-life benefits for working for a non-profit rather than an intense corporate environment. And I expect he has earned enough money that he could retire comfortably right now.
It stated that Saudis traveld to Israel to buy hacking software from a company: they were asked to buy 2 new iPhones from an Apple store, boot (start) the phones and give the numbers to the hacking company.
A few moments later without any input from the Saudis the phones were hacked ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/world/middleeast/saudi-khashoggi-spyware-israel.html
I'm genuinely curious if the iPhone can be hacked without physical access to the device itself. Could you post a link to the BBC article?
It is very easy to throw out a broad accusation, but where is the beef?
I have my share of problems with NYT opinion, but the reporting is vetted or they could be sued. I do not see the NYT getting successfully sued on a regular basis.
Found a better link, skip to “According to the report”: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-hacking-firm-nso-group-offered-saudis-cellphone-spy-tools-report/
I read it somewhere else, but this is essentially the same (and it was certainly very recent, as this linked article is).
The point is that a jailbreak for iOS 12 might exist, so clicking a special link could hack your phone.
Hacking an iPhone without the user actually doing anything (except giving the phone number) might be possible if a (root) exploit of the sms (or phone) handling exists. This means sending an sms string (usually a buffer overrun) that executes some code that actually clicks on the jailbreak link (but this is speculation of course).
Not old, unless you think a few months is old.