I don't care about Apple but I hope this won't end bad for Signal.
Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
31–40 of 119 posts
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#32Hmm, so Apple just hired away the dev of pretty much only secure open and cross-platform iMessage alternative?
Frederic Jacobs has been planning on moving away from Open Whisper Systems for a while. They didn't hire him away, he took another job.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you blind to the difference between reporting an event and interpreting the event badly?
Please quote the article where you feel it interpreted events poorly. And be civil.
How about the first paragraph?
> Apple hires plenty of interns all year round, but one particular addition
> revealed this week caught the eye given the company’s current position
> opposing a controversial order to enable the FBI to access the iPhone used
> by one of the San Bernardino shooters.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#34I can understand how people want to put puzzle pieces together, but this is completely idiotic. Whatever remaining security holes there are with secure enclave, they have nothing to do with a software chat app. This is entirely coincidental and has nothing to do with anything. TechCrunch should be ashamed of itself (again) for being such a douchebag. Edit: I'm not saying Apple hiring the guy is stupid. I'm responding…
It's not idiotic, it's interesting news given the climate. They didn't say what his role or project will be. What's wrong with reporting on Apple hiring a developer of one of the most popular secure messaging tools?
I think it's idiotic. Are you idiotic?
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#35Congrats on the new gig. I wonder if this is a sign of bad financial health of Open Whisper Systems ?
Frederic Jacobs announced he was looking elsewhere some time ago. I don't have any insight into Open Whisper System's internals, but considering they've still been committing code and they're still posting new job openings, I doubt this has anything to do with Open Whisper Systems and more to do with Jacobs wanting a change of scenery.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#36I'm starting to think Apple has found its first viable post-Jobs narrative.
This is all a waste and show off as far as I'm concerned until they go open on everything.
With this move, they will also waste very valuable developer's (crypto experience ain't cheap) skills.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please quote the article where you feel it interpreted events poorly. And be civil.
How about the first paragraph? > Apple hires plenty of interns all year round, but one particular addition > revealed this week caught the eye given the company’s current position > opposing a controversial order to enable the FBI to access the iPhone used > by one of the San Bernardino shooters. // Of course it's worth writing about, but it certainly would have been higher quality reporting if they didn't immediatel…
That is hardly a misinterpretation of events. They're just saying,
"hey, there's this software developer who's done some work in the field of security on an app which is famous, and he's going to work at Apple during a time when some issues with Apple's security are in the news. And we noticed and we want to share that with you"
It's interesting. Tech Crunch can write about whatever they want. If you don't like the article, downvote it and move on. Perhaps Ian is just jealous nobody is writing an article about him, because he is clearly smarter than this developer.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#38Congrats on the new gig. I wonder if this is a sign of bad financial health of Open Whisper Systems ?
Apple is not known for high salaries, so I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. There are lots of reasons beside money why people switch jobs...
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#39I can understand how people want to put puzzle pieces together, but this is completely idiotic. Whatever remaining security holes there are with secure enclave, they have nothing to do with a software chat app. This is entirely coincidental and has nothing to do with anything. TechCrunch should be ashamed of itself (again) for being such a douchebag. Edit: I'm not saying Apple hiring the guy is stupid. I'm responding…
I disagree and think this is potentially big news. You push us to relax security...we push back by trying to make a play in the secure chat (for everyone not just iPhone users) market which would make your life a lot harder.
The market is tough but it would be interesting if Apple would actually enter it. They have enough power to seed the network effect needed with a large enough user base. I think this entire saga has actually opened up a nice spot to push really hard for the positioning slot of "secure by default". It's been done by a lot of people including Apple before but I think we're at a point in time where the media echo might be good enough for a big company to make a true positioning play. It's also a great differentiation against Google/Facebook. Apple has voiced the "essentially our competitors are in the we make money off privacy violations business" (in other words) but they might want to hit that harder soon. A bit fickle since you need FB/Google in the "security now" alliance but still interesting.
I'm still skeptical about closed source software for secure X but I guess it's better than nothing.
Re: Apple hires one of the developers behind Signal
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 the…
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 h…
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.