Fired? That person should end up in jail or at least get a fine putting him/her into great dept for breaking a NDA (or whatever it's called in the tech world)
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iPhone Source Code Was Leaked by Low-Level Apple Employee
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Fired? That person should end up in jail or at least get a fine putting him/her into great dept for breaking a NDA (or whatever it's called in the tech world)
It's still a great opportunity that many in the world would die to have. If you prove yourself you will most likely get hired and given a permanent position. It's safe to say that not everyone at Apple is completely happy with their compensation but they just wouldn't do something like this. It must be a stressful job. Just like working for a game developer like Naughty Dog is. These companies have high standards and will not accept mediocrity for the most part.
I agree that we don't know exactly what happened here but being unhappy doesn't give one the right to steal IP and throw it on the Internet. I don't think anyone here would be happy if someone leaked stuff they created or were working on.
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Why do employees think they can get away with something like this? 
They didn't intend for it to leak, but oops. If I had access to that code, I wouldn't dare leak it.
They didn't intend for it to leak, but oops. If I had access to that code, I wouldn't dare leak it.
You really think malfeasance against a corporation deserves jailtime? Because what, he hurt their bottom line?
What about people working for a competitor, who hurt Apple's bottom line by just being really good at competing, i.e., Google, Samsung, LG... etc. Should THEY go to jail too?
Happily, SO FAR, people mostly can't go to jail just because they piss a corporation off, although if he BENEFITED PERSONALLY from the theft/unauthorized release, I suppose you COULD make the argument that that would constitute embezzlement, which SHOULD produce jail time, in any fairly-run system.
By my original point, however, I just meant that AS A BARE MINIMUM, the employee, (upon realizing the person most likely DID do it, and isn't being set-up, railroaded, scape-goated, etc.) should be terminated from employment, not meaning to say that that should happen, and then be the end of it.
At the same time though, I'm relieved that we haven't QUITE reached a point yet where a person can be tossed in jail and left to rot purely on some corporate executive's say-so.
I think the current alternative is worse. Sure they’ll fire him. There goes relative references, a shot across your proefessional listing on LinkedIn you may not see it but other employers do - it’s hidden from you. References can be just as evil and negative as a jail sentence. Meaning your freedom is controlled by your net worth and income - once both fall into nothing then your sense and choices you can make as a free person become very limited. At least stating you where in Jail is a very legitimate and non arguable reason you haven’t been working for a given length of time. Remember, jail is simply a form of controls removing a clients freedoms and choices. It doesn’t have to be an intuition
He was not the point. His actions were just another symptom of some problems at Apple. Yes, they are making tons of money, but look at the current everyday failures is usability, features, lack of synergy across products, etc. There is a problem in Apple management and it is showing, if you care to look. This is just another symptom.
Apple is a massive (the biggest) company with many moving parts. You can't point to an isolated case such as this or generalize failures like "features" and say it's a symptom of management. It's confirmation bias.
If you take a 30,000 foot view, Apple is selling more products than ever at higher prices than ever. According to the earnings call, user satisfaction is at all time highs across product lines including iPad, iPhone, and Mac.
iOS 11 had some issues, but they've largely been dealt with. There have been some security bugs dealt with too. There have been some (frivolous) lawsuits. There has been some bad press on batteries. Some old source code was leaked. They are transitioning iPhone, creating some product inconsistency.
I'm totally aware of the issues, but Apple is about as high profile as it gets, so they are naturally put under a microscope. They are still doing amazingly well.
- iPhone X was a hit, pushing ASP to almost $800 and being the best selling iPhone since release.
- HomePod is getting rave reviews.
- Watch 3 is easily the best watch they've made.
- AirPods continue to lead wireless wearables.
- 88.3B in sales and $20B in profit in 90 days.
Cook has done a terrific job at Apple.
I wouldn't knock peer pressure. That's how quite a few smartphones get sold!
...low-level Apple employee who took the code from Apple in 2016 to share with friends in the jailbreaking community...
What the...
1st thing 1st. A low level employee shouldn't have that much access.
2nd. They should be working in a sandbox. NO internet connections to the outside world.
3rd. Security failure. No USB sticks or drives should be coming in and out of the building unless it is with high level employees who have signed very tight NDAs.
There’s a big difference between releasing the source code of an OS and boot loader guy.... Android is able to remain secure with its source published thanks to locked bootloaders. The boot loader in a locked state will prevent unsigned code execution from being possible prior to the os booting up which ensures the integrity of the data that’s handled by the os remaining secure from manipulation by malicious code which is able to mount the root partition in a rewriteable state through the use of custom tools which are unable to run in a secure boot state because they lack the proper signatures.
This is the same for iPhones which utilize a boot loader known as iboot. If it’s source code is in the wild it creates an upsurdly dangerous predicament for the integrity of iphones because it leaves open the possibility of its vulnerabilities being aired out for anyone looking for an easy way to compromise its contents.
The chances of apple modifying the iboot code with any degree of regularity are pretty slim because it has a simple function, prevent unsigned code from executing prior to the iOS system initializing and starting up. Therefore the leaking of its source is a serious issue because that code is probably present on all iPhones granted it’s changed from device to device slightly however the possibility of any vulnerability being present which exists in a part of the code which may possibly be present in every version of iboot on every device can’t be ruled out.
Look at Lieng Chen and his never ending ability to jailbreak every version of iOS within days to weeks of its official release. How is he able to do this despite the community of brilliant individuals whom combine resources to try and accomplish the same thing with ever iOS release and it takes months and sometimes years despite the collective efforts and knowledge of the community far outweighing the resources of one small security research group of about 8 people that takes on iOS themselves and wins every time. Why is that?
Because Lieng Chen and his team most likely have an iboot exploit they’ve been sitting on for years waiting for apple to discover the vulnerability and patch it.
So it’s a big deal guy...