For years the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the U.S. has attempted to hack Apple devices, based on documents that whistleblower Edward Snowden of the National Security Agency (NSA) provided. The devices in the attempted hacks included iPads and iPhones.
CIA employees and other researchers have been meeting yearly at Trusted Computing Base (TCB) Jamboree, a secret meeting, to share information and strategies about hacking into Apple devices, according to Top Tech News.
Snowden also provided a document that included an invitation to the 2012 Jamboree. That would have been the seventh yearly meeting, and implied that the first Jamboree was held one year before Apple Inc. launched its first iPhone.
Besides attempting to encrypt data on Apple gadgets, security researchers also created a version of the tech giant's Xcode development environment. The goal was to create backdoor access to iPads and IPhones, according to The Intercept.
Peter Eckersley, a director at Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), referred to the attempted hack on Apple products as a "scandal." This is because a large U.S. agency was attempting to hack the security of products that a U.S.-based company produced.
Eckersley also believes that the U.S. is not the only country that has attempted to hack Apple devices. It is likely that countries such as China, Russia, Iran, and Israel are also attempting to hack them.
He stressed the need for companies such as Apple to increase their efforts to boost encryption and security protections. Eckersley said that American tech companies need to "lift" their "game."
Apple, according to its latest Privacy Policy, has stated that it has never worked with any country's government agencies to construct a "back door" to its products. It also has never allowed any government to access its servers, and it vowed that it "never will."