Andrey Shumeyko was part of the market for iPhone prototypes and insider secrets. He was also giving Apple the names of other people who shared this type of information.
His hope was the company would pay him for the info. He was very disappointed.
But Shumeyko wasn’t caught. He volunteered his story to Vice once he accepted Apple wasn’t going to reward him for turning over the names and contact info of other people sharing iPhone secrets.
Apple’s inside man
YRH04E and JVHResearch were two pseudonyms used by Shumeyko when he was offering “leaked apps, manuals, and stolen devices for sale,” according to Vice. He reportedly was an active participant in the business of iPhone secrets. That includes receiving about $500 from 9to5Mac’s Guilherme Rambo to leak details about the 2018 iPad Pro.
But he says he started giving information to Apple in 2020 after an early build of iOS 14 leaked to hackers and tipsters. He was able to identify who in China had first supplied the iPhone 11 with the unreleased operating system on it. And he took that information to Apple Global Security, the team tasked with stopping leaks.
He went on to provide a “constant flow of tips on people in the jailbreaking and internals community, as well as tips on Apple employees who were active online and were leaking information,” according to Vice.
Shumeyko told Vice that he was hoping “I’ll get to walk away with a reward generous enough to jumpstart my life entirely.” But all he ever got was thanks from Global Security. So he decided to tell his story.
