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Apple's Security Expert Joined the ACLU To Tackle 'Authoritarian Fever' (vice.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Apple security expert Jon Callas, who helped build protection for billions of computers and smartphones against criminal hackers and government surveillance, is now taking on government and corporate spying in the policy realm. Jon Callas is an elder statesman in the world of computer security and cryptography. He's been a vanguard in developing security for mobile communications and email as chief technology officer and co-founder of PGP Corporation -- which created Pretty Good Privacy, the first widely available commercial encryption software -- and serving the same roles at Silent Circle and Blackphone, touted as the world's most secure Android phone.

As a security architect and analyst for Apple computers -- he served three stints with the tech giant in 1995-1997, 2009-2011, and 2016-2018 -- he has played an integral role in helping to develop and assess security for the Mac and iOS operating systems and various components before their release to the public. His last stretch there as manager of a Red Team (red teams hack systems to expose and fix their vulnerabilities) began just after the FBI tried to force the tech giant to undermine security it had spent years developing for its phones to break into an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. But after realizing there's a limit to the privacy and surveillance issues technology companies can address, Callas decided to tackle the issues from the policy side, accepting a two-year position as senior technology fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union. Callas spoke to Motherboard about government backdoors, the need for tech expertise in policymaking, and what he considers the biggest challenge for the security industry.

3 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. ACLU!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You gotta be shitting me. The ACLU is a racist organization that consistently supports statist postures ... when they hurt white males. Free speech? So 20th century. The new ACLU is 100% focused on leftists propaganda, and doesn't have shit for civil liberties. Sounds like a good match for a guy who's job at Apple was as a prison warden. Their walled garden is a prison, and you are the prisoner.

  2. Who cares? by ASCIIxTended · · Score: -1, Troll

    The ACLU has become nothing more than a troll mill, just like the splc.

    --
    I do not belong to the church of the lowercase 'i'
  3. Authoritarian Fever? by BECoole · · Score: -1, Troll

    What is that? The attacks on freedom of association the Left has been mounting?