[vonklaus]

Is it idiotic to assume a company embroiled in a debate about privacy and security for a communication device-- the biggest driver of revenue for the company, hired someone in the secure communications space to work on communications products?

Also, Apple has a PR problem and can't operate without secure systems. Article title notwithstanding, it is a pretty big deal that while an intelligence agency is coming at them hard they hired a developer, in a very public manner, that's application is used by the very person who made the evidence of surveillance known.

This could be a signal to the market that they not only passively oppose this, but they are actively locking down their systems and they won't cooperate. Seems like a very sharp developer and as a bonus he did secure system messaging so it is not idiotic.

edit: I ammended post to reflect that he is likely not working on iPhone directly.

[ianamartin]

I will argue that this guy has none of the skills needed to up the ante on the current security model of the latest versions of iOS. What's not known is how security enclave works. But what is known is that it's firmware.

Something very much outside what we know about the secure chat app.

We also know that iMessage has never been known to have any fundamental security flaws.

I tried to clarify above, and I'll do so here again. I don't think the hire was idiotic. I think TCs characterization of hiring a security messiah was idiotic.

That is not anywhere close to reality.

[vonklaus]

It is a strong signal to the market that they aren't cooperating and actually, actively hiring to get to market with something that is non-trivial to break into.

I don't know about his engineering abilities but the interview I read and some of the news articles presented him as quite a talented person. Signal, if it is as secure as the EFF audit suggests, would be one way to shore up older iPhones.

> I think TC's characterization of it was idiotic.

I mean, if we grade it on the TC scale it wasn't. It is hard to say it is unrelated. Their communication device is very publicly being regulated into compliance and they want to hire all the good people they can get. This is good on 3 levels, solid engineer, strong communication to market and that commitment brings in other solid engineers.

[ascorbic]

"I will argue that this guy has none of the skills needed to up the ante on the current security model of the latest versions of iOS."

What are you basing that assertion on?