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>In 2017, however, Solnik was hired by Apple to work on its security team, specifically on the so-called red team, which audits and hacks the company’s products
by Despegar 8y ago
>In 2017, however, Solnik was hired by Apple to work on its security team, specifically on the so-called red team, which audits and hacks the company’s products. His talk at Black Hat had apparently impressed the folks at Cupertino. A few weeks later, however, he abruptly left the company, according to multiple sources.
>The full story of Solnik’s short stint at Apple is a closely-guarded secret. Motherboard spoke to dozens of people and was unable to confirm the specifics around his leaving the company; one source within Apple told me information about Solnik is “incredibly restricted,” and another confirmed that even within Apple, few know exactly what happened.
Why hire someone that was previously selling "offensive security tools and exploits to governments" into a sensitive role like that? It's incredibly naive to think that just because you're employing them now that they are actually loyal to you. Surely the insider threat is greater than any expertise that person has. Just pay them a bug bounty for specific information and keep them at arms length. Finding high integrity security researchers to hire is more important than raw talent.
- evolvedcleaning 8y agoMoney talks, if they paid him enough they could buy his loyalty Similar parallels exist in many walks of life. Those guarding assets need incentives to be loyal In a case of a potentially bad actor/blackest hat, you make them an offer they can’t refuse. Take lots of money and stay quiet, or we will unleash our government pit bulls.
- golergka 8y agoNot all people have money as their only and highest motivation. For many, once they get at a comfortable level, other things become more important.
- MagnumOpus 8y agoIn the case of a black hat selling exploits to governments, that government can always outbid a company. They can offer to pay more plus not kill/imprison his family members.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- therein 8y agoWow, this sounds incredibly, personally familiar. This is such an Apple thing to do. In fact hearing about Solnik, I feel better about talking about things because I always thought giving out details narrowed things down a little too much. Let me guess what happened to Solnik. He got to work one day to find out his meetings for that day was cancelled. Then got an iMessage asking him to come to a different building instead to meet with Global Security Operations. :) This is never about Apple finding something against you. It is about Apple now deciding you are too risky to employ as you constitute an internal threat because you read too much or you put one and one together and told someone something you're not supposed know because you're not disclosed on it. Apple probably let him keep his bonus and all the RSUs he was promised, as a demonstration of "good faith".