A 19-year-old took on Apple and was later hired by the same company. However, due to an email, he was dismissed a year later.
Who is it about? Nicholas Allegra is known among hackers and on the internet primarily by the name “Comex.” The then 18-year-old released a so-called jailbreak for the iPhone 4 in 2010. A jailbreak refers to hacking a phone to gain unrestricted access to the entire system. Manufacturers generally try to prevent this. At the time, the English-language magazine Forbes.com reported on Comex.
At that time, “Comex” exploited a vulnerability in a Safari library. This allowed the jailbreak to be executed directly in the Safari browser.
A year later, he released JailbreakMe 3.0, targeting several iOS devices. At this time, the community believed that Nicholas Allegra was “years ahead” of other iOS hackers.
Employment at Apple and dismissal for not responding to an important email
Employment at Apple: The young man became part of Apple from the founding of JailbreakMe as a “remote intern.” It is unclear what he did for the company and what his tasks were. But after exactly one year, it was already over. His hiring by Apple is based on his own statement, as Apple generally does not provide information on personnel matters.
Why did the relationship end? After almost a year at Apple, Allegra announced on Twitter in 2012 that he was no longer employed by Apple. In another message, he explained that he ended up in this situation because he “forgot to respond to an email.” The email in question was an offer for continued employment.
The internship was limited to one year, and Apple apparently asked the intern via email for confirmation on whether he would stay with the company for another year. When the company received no response, it terminated the contract of the iPhone hacker, and he was no longer an intern.
Shortly thereafter, he reportedly started an internship at Google, at least according to the English-language magazine Forbes.com. He is said not to have worked on Android because he always found Android too boring compared to Apple.
Another hacker went even further: In 2019, an expert found a serious security flaw in the iPhone’s operating system. With this, the then 22-year-old attempted to blackmail Apple. Today, the expert is an employee of a security company: A 22-year-old hacked thousands of iPhones and wanted money from Apple – Now he is the director of a security company
