Apple to Give Security Researchers 'Special' iPhones for Bug Testing, macOS Bug Bounty Program Coming

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Apple is planning to give security researchers access to special iPhones that will make it easier for them to find security vulnerabilities and weaknesses, reports Forbes, citing sources with knowledge of Apple's plans.

Apple is going to announce the new program at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, which kicked off earlier this week and is continuing until Thursday.


The "special" iPhones will be similar to "dev devices," aka iPhones that are not as locked down and that will better allow security researchers to locate bugs.

What makes these iPhones special? One source with knowledge of the Apple announcement said they would essentially be "dev devices." Think of them as iPhones that allow the user to do a lot more than they could on a traditionally locked-down iPhone. For instance, it should be possible to probe pieces of the Apple operating system that aren't easily accessible on a commercial iPhone. In particular, the special devices could allow hackers to stop the processor and inspect memory for vulnerabilities. This would allow them to see what happens at the code level when they attempt an attack on iOS code.

The iPhones won't be identical to the developer iPhones that are provided to Apple's internal staff, as they won't be as open. They are described as "lite" versions of the developer devices by Forbes, with security researchers unlikely to be able to decrypt the iPhone's firmware.

iPhone prototypes created for Apple's internal staff are popular with security researchers and hackers and can fetch quite a lot of money, as noted in a report earlier this year from Motherboard. Described as "pre-jailbroken devices," the iPhones are valuable because they can be used to find vulnerabilities both by those who have good intentions and those who have bad intentions.

Releasing a similar device to security researchers who participate in the bug bounty program will perhaps allow Apple to better locate serious bugs, leading to faster fixes.

Apple is also planning to announce a new macOS bounty program, which will provide rewards to people who find and report security vulnerabilities in macOS.

Apple's announcements could perhaps come on Thursday, which is when Ivan Krstić, Apple's head of security engineering, is set to offer a "Behind the Scenes" look at iOS and macOS.


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Japanese FTC Investigating Apple's Partnerships With Suppliers

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Japan's Fair Trade Commission is investigating Apple to determine whether it pressured Japanese suppliers and abused its position of power, thereby violating antimonopoly rules, reports Reuters.

The FTC in Japan surveyed Japanese companies and found that Apple had signed contracts forcing its partners to provide free technology and know-how for parts manufacturing.


When one of the companies called Apple's contract an infringement of intellectual property rights and demanded a revision, Apple allegedly threatened to end the business relationship between the two companies.

Apple has not commented on the report, but this is just one of several antitrust investigations that have been launched in recent months.

In South Korea, Apple has been accused of offering local carriers unfair iPhone contracts that require them to pay advertising and repair costs, and in Europe, the European Union is investigating Apple's App Store policies following an accusation from Spotify that said Apple uses its App Store to deliberately disadvantage other app developers.

In the United States, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating the impact of Apple's sales agreement with Amazon on independent resellers, and the U.S. has also launched a broad antitrust review into major tech companies.

Tag: Japan

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Check Out the Silence Unknown Callers Feature in iOS 13 for Blocking Spam Calls

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Spam phone calls have become increasingly problematic in the United States over the course of the last few years, and most people receive multiple spam calls per week, and some, per day.

Apple is aiming to help combat spam phone calls in iOS 13 with a new "Silence Unknown Callers" feature, which does what the name suggests - it silences incoming phone calls from numbers that are not in your contacts list. In our latest YouTube video, we checked out this feature to demonstrate just how it works.

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With the Silence Unknown Callers feature activated, all incoming calls to our test phone from unknown numbers (aka numbers not in our Contacts list) were silenced.

Silenced means sent straight to voicemail without the phone ringing at all, but the person does have the chance to leave a voice message. The person being blocked still hears the standard number of rings before voicemail picks up, so there's no real indication that Silence Unknown Callers is on.

For a call to come through with Silence Unknown Callers turned on, it needs to be added to the Contacts list. A number previously sent in an email (iOS can sometimes recognize phone numbers from emails) does not green light a call to go through. If you call a number that was sent straight to voicemail, however, it is no longer recognized as an unknown number even if that number isn't added to your contacts.

Silence Unknown Callers is a simple solution, but it's not identifying spam calls or risky numbers specifically. It's blocking out all unknown numbers, which may not always be a desirable solution. Still, those silenced callers can leave voicemails and the numbers are listed in the Recents list in the Phone app, so this is a solid way to cut down on calls that you don't want if you're contacted by a lot of spammers.

You can turn on the Silence Unknown Callers feature in iOS 13 by opening up the Settings app, selecting the Phone section, scrolling down to "Call Silencing and Blocked Contacts" and toggling the Silence Unknown Callers option to the on position.

Silence Unknown Callers is activated right now in both the iOS 13 developer and public betas, and it will be available for everyone with an iOS 13-compatible iPhone when iOS 13 launches this fall.

Related Roundups: iOS 13, iPadOS

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