Developer behind world’s most secure messaging app joins Apple

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Signal is the world's most secure messaging app.
Signal is the world's most secure messaging app.
Photo: Open Whisper Systems

Apple plans to make future versions of iOS so secure even it can’t hack it, and the company is wasting no time stocking up on talented developers that specialize in encryption.

One of the iPhone-maker’s most recent hires, Frederic Jacobs, was previously a lead developer for Signal, which has earned a name as one of the most secure messaging apps available. It’s so good, it’s become a favorite of former NSA-contractor Edward Snowden who says he uses it everyday.

Apple has not commented on the recent hire, but Jacobs sent out a tweet on Thursday morning detailing his new post with Apple’s Core OS security team. The position is an internship but no details were given on how long Jacobs will be working in Cupertino.

Plans to make the iPhone security tougher than ever were supposedly underway even before the FBI’s demands that Apple unlock the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone. In an appearance on ABC’s World News Tonight Tim Cook stated that creating such a tool would be like the software version of cancer.

Jacobs spent the last two and a half years as a security engineer at Signal-creator, Open Whisper Systems, where he worked on the end-to-end encryption for the iOS app. What Jacobs’ new role at Apple will entail is under wraps, but he could be part of the team that implements a new backup strategy for iCloud authentication that would make it impossible even for Apple to decrypt.

Via: Wired

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