Ian Beer

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Ian Beer is a British computer security expert and white hat hacker, currently residing in Switzerland and working for Google as part of its Project Zero. [1] He has been lauded by some as one of the best iOS hackers. [2] Beer was the first security expert to publish his findings under the "Project Zero" name in the spring of 2014; [3] at this time, the project was not yet revealed and crediting the newly discovered vulnerabilities to it led to some speculation. [1]

He is known for discovering a large number of security vulnerabilities in Apple products, including iOS, [1] Safari [3] and macOS, [4] as well as helping create jailbreaks for iOS versions. [5] [6] One such discovery forced Apple to rewrite significant parts of the macOS and iOS kernel. [7] Beer is also a vocal critic of Apple concerning its bug bounty program for iOS announced in 2016. [8] [9] The invite only program has been accused of low payouts. [8] Beer has also criticized the company for not disclosing to its users why updates that fix the bugs should be installed. [10]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Greenberg, Andy (15 July 2014). "Meet 'Project Zero,' Google's Secret Team of Bug-Hunting Hackers". Wired.com . Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Koebler, Jason; Franceschi-Bicchierai, Lorenzo (9 August 2018). "Google Hacker Asks Tim Cook to Donate $2.45 Million In Unpaid iPhone Bug Bounties". Motherboard. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  3. 1 2 Schmidt, Jürgen (15 July 2014). "Google schickt Elite-Hacker auf die Jagd nach Sicherheitslücken". Heise Security (in German). Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  4. ↑ Donath, Andreas (26 October 2016). "Sicherheitslücken: macOS Sierra 10.12.1 unbedingt aufspielen - UBERGIZMO DE". de.ubergizmo.com (in German). Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  5. ↑ Popa, Bogdan. "First iPhone 7 Jailbreak (iOS 10.1.1) Now Available for Download". softpedia. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  6. ↑ Becker, Leo (22 December 2016). "Yalu: Erster öffentlicher Jailbreak für iOS 10". Heise Security (in German). Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Chirgwin, Richard (27 October 2016). "How Google's Project Zero made Apple refactor its kernel". The Register . Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  8. 1 2 Bradbury, Danny (5 March 2019). "Security Researcher Changes Mind over Apple Bug". Infosecurity Magazine. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  9. ↑ Leswing, Kif. "An elite Google hacker is directly challenging Apple CEO Tim Cook to donate over $2 million to charity". Business Insider. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  10. ↑ Tung, Liam (19 October 2018). "Google warns Apple: Missing bugs in your security bulletins are 'disincentive to patch'". ZDNet. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
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