“It feels like editing an English paper” – 19 Year Old iPhone Hacker

This 19 year old chap who always keeps low profile and a prominent member of the iOS jailbreak community agreed to be interviewed by Forbes where he told about his real life and interests.

 

 

Until now, we have seen this Apple hacker as Comex (@comex on Twitter) is the author of JailbreakMe, an awesome easy web only jail breaking tool for the iPhone, iPod, iPad devices. JailbreakMe, unlike other tools, doesn’t require a computer connection or major knowledge on how iOS operates since it relies on a PDF exploit found in Mobile Safari - just by pointing the browser to JailbreakMe’s website and following the easy on-screen instructions. It merely lets users install any application they want on their devices. But jail breaking, as the  practice is called, violates Apple’s obsessive control of its gadgets and demonstrates software holes that could be exploited later by less benevolent hackers.

Nicholas Allegra, his real name, mostly spends his days finding vulnerabilities in Apple’s code and releasing exploits in the form of tools. This tall shaggy haired and bespectacled 19 year has been on leave from Brown University since winter and looking for an internship.

He simply says -

“It feels like editing an English paper,”…“You just go through and look for errors. I don’t know why I seem to be so effective at it.”

Comex isn’t after profit: his site is free, though it does accept donations. Nor does he criticize Apple for wanting to control what users can install on their devices. He calls himself an Apple “fanboy,” and describes Android’s more open platform as “the enemy.” “I guess it’s just about the challenge, more than anything else,” he says.

[via]