Apple has announced that it will receive requests from participants of its Developer Program to receive an altered iPhone for security research on the iOS system. In this way the company hopes to improve the security of its devices and iOS 14, its latest version of the operating system, before it is available to all users.
Thanks to trials of the beta version of iOS 14 developers discovered that some apps have access to the clipboard included in the various Apple operating systems, so companies that incur this practice have corrected their code; iOS 14 is expected to discover other variants of espionage. One of the companies noted for incurring this access is TikTok, the popular short video platform.
Regarding the modified iPhone, identified as “Security Research Device”, it is part of a program with which Apple hopes to quickly address security issues on iOS systems. The device allows researchers to access the shell to run various security tools and modify rights in order to detect potential vulnerabilities.
It should be noted that this program has limitations, as the device must be sent back to Apple and any knowledge must be immediately notified to the company and to the developers of applications.
The main requirement to receive one of these devices is to belong to the Apple Developer Program; participants in this Program may request one of these devices, although they should be aware that the company will send these devices only to researchers who have demonstrated their ability to detect security flaws on previous occasions.
Many hackers are looking for iOS system failures in order to sell exploits on the black market, so the company is deploying considerable effort to prevent failures from being exploited by threat actors. In addition, the company is trying to establish a closer relationship with the cybersecurity community.
He is a cyber security and malware researcher. He studied Computer Science and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2006. He is actively working as an cyber security investigator. He also worked for different security companies. His everyday job includes researching about new cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in enterprise security implementation.