By now everyone pretty much knows how closed Apple can be, although admittedly over the years they have started to open themselves up a bit more. However recently it was discovered in the current iOS 10 beta that Apple had not encrypted the kernel for its operating system, thus giving users access to the inner workings of the platform.
Given that for pretty much every iOS version Apple has released saw the kernel encrypted, it was an odd choice. According to a report from the MIT Technology Review, it has been suggested that this was done on purpose to allow developers and security researchers to discover vulnerabilities within iOS so that Apple can fix them. After all there is only so much a company can do by themselves, right?
The report reads, “Security experts say the famously secretive company may have adopted a bold new strategy intended to encourage more people to report bugs in its software–or perhaps made an embarrassing mistake.” According to security expert Jonathan Zdziarski, he claims that this was done on purpose.
Apparently the idea is that by exposing potential vulnerabilities, it will prevent the likes of law enforcement like the FBI from hoarding such information to themselves, which in turn will allow Apple to quickly patch these security holes to prevent hackers (or the FBI) from breaking into the iPhone. We have to say it is a pretty bold move and hopefully more good than bad will come of this.