Apple Launches New Security Research Website

[user002]

Maybe this new "security website" will detail Apple's strategy for fighting Pegasus and other state-sponsored cyber-terrorist activities that absolutely shredded the iPhone's so-called security.

 

[4nNtt]

Nice! There was much needed transparency and community building needed around Apple platform security.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

No bet; I came to say exactly the same thing. Apple may be forced into permitting sideloading, but they won't be going down that path without a great deal of kicking and screaming; this website is likely where they plan to conduct their research into exactly how significantly sideloading is affecting security. And if the news about Android sideloaded malware is any indication, there will be no shortage of opportunities to add to that research.

If this was something they were going to be doing in 2024, they would have started long before now. There are features that they have full control over that still aren’t ready two years later.

 

[Sciomar]

I would like to think nobody can find a negative about this program. Seems good and useful.

 

[cyanite]

Maybe this new "security website" will detail Apple's strategy for fighting Pegasus and other state-sponsored cyber-terrorist activities that absolutely shredded the iPhone's so-called security.

Exploits happen, although ones at the scale of pegasus are fortunately rare. Of course that one has been closed for a while now, and the entire subsystem, hardened.

 

[haincha]

Hopefully Apple keeps it up. They're long known for treating security folks as "the enemy".

 

[svish]

Good to see this. Easy to access information.

 

[zarmanto]

If this was something they were going to be doing in 2024, they would have started long before now. There are features that they have full control over that still aren’t ready two years later.

We may be talking past each other, here... but it seems to me that they couldn't have started long before now, in this particular instance. In fact, they still can't yet start: You can't study the effects of something that has never been permitted, until it suddenly becomes permissible. The effects of sideloading on Android have certainly already been studied at length by various entities, and that can of course inform Apple's own analysis to some degree; however, actually studying the effects of sideloading on iOS itself will only be able to start in earnest after the first public (non-beta) version of iOS with that capability hits the streets.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

We may be talking past each other, here... but it seems to me that they couldn't have started long before now, in this particular instance.

It’s true, and we’ve seen evidence of it, that Apple plans their features well in advance (for example, they didn’t just decide last year to do Stage Manager in iOS 16). So, the likelihood that this has anything to do with delivering sideloading in 2024 is fairly low. Likely, just business as usual expanding their efforts in this area.

2025 or 2026 would likely be the earliest realistic delivery of such a wide ranging feature, regardless of any regulation. Of course, we DID see the USB-C regulation that started in 2018 wait until the big players were ready, so if we see the EU formalizing on a 2025 date, it’s more likely that everyone’s decided to play along.

 

[_Spinn_]

This is a good move by Apple.