Recently, more tidbits about forthcoming Apple products have been coming from its offices in Cupertino, California, than from the company’s vast supply chain in Asia.
That’s according to Outline’s William Turton, who has watched a video of an hour-long briefing held by former NSA investigators in order to educate about 100 top Apple employees on how confidential information gets leaked out to the press.
Titled âStopping LeakersâKeeping Confidential at Apple,â the presentation was led by Apple’s Director of Global Security David Rice, Director of Worldwide Investigations Lee Freedman and Jenny Hubbert, who works on Apple’s Global Security communications and training team.
The presentation educated employees on the ways to âprevent information from reaching competitors, counterfeiters and the press.â Appleâs Global Security team employs an undisclosed number of investigators around the world, with some members embedded on certain Apple product teams to help employees keep secrets.
âWhen I see a leak in the press, for me, itâs gut-wrenching,â one Apple employee said. âIt really makes me sick to my stomach.â Another employee said that when an Apple employee does leak confidential information, they’re âletting all of us down.â
âItâs our company, the reputation of the company, the hard work of the different teams that work on this stuff,â said the employee. Tim Cook publicly promised in 2012 that Apple would double-down on secrecy. So, how has that worked out?
According to Greg Joswiak, Appleâs Vice President of iOS product marketing:
This has become a big deal for Tim. Matter of fact, it should be important to literally everybody at Apple that we can’t tolerate this any longer. I have faith deep in my soul that if we hire smart people theyâre gonna think about this, theyâre gonna understand this, and ultimately theyâre gonna do the right thing and thatâs to keep their mouth shut.
Apple is actively going after leakers who would spoil its âOne More Thingâ surprises.
According to Jenny Hubbert:
So you heard Tim say, âWe have one more thing.â So what is that one more thing? Surprise and delight. Surprise and delight when we announce a product to the world that hasnât leaked. Itâs incredibly impactful, in a really positive way. Itâs our DNA. Itâs our brand. But when leaks get out, thatâs even more impactful. Itâs a direct hit to all of us.
In recent months, Apple clamped down on supply chain leaks, so much so that more confidential information now gets leaked out from Appleâs campuses in California than its factories abroad.
âLast year was the first year that Apple campuses leaked more than the supply chain,â Rice told the gathered employees. âMore stuff came out of Apple campuses last year than all of our supply chain combined.â
This is a notable achievement given that Apple’s contract manufacturers employ up to three million people when the company ramps up production, and all of these people need to be checked every time they enter and exit the factory.
The iPhone maker has been âbusting its assâ to prevent supply chain leaks, with Rice describing the efforts as âtrench warfare non-stop,â especially with âvery talented adversariesâ and black market sellers offering âtop dollarâ for Apple parts.
A product’s housing is the most sough-after part. âIf you have a housing, you pretty much know what we’re going to ship,â Rice says, adding that the stolen parts often end up in Huaqiangbei, one of the biggest electronics markets in the world, located in Shenzhen, Southern China.
âThereâs a whole slew of folks that can be tempted because what happens if I offer you, say, three monthsâ salary?â In some cases weâve seen up to a yearâs worth of salary being rewarded for stealing product out of the factory,â said Rice.
2013 was a particularly painful year for Apple as the company had to buy back about 19,000 stolen enclosures before the iPhone 5c announcement and then an additional 11,000 before the phones were shipped to customers. âSo we’re buying as fast as we possibly can to try to keep it out of every blog on Earth,â Rice said.
Here’s how many Apple enclosures were stolen since 2013:
- 2014â387 enclosures stolen
- 2015â57 enclosures stolen, 50 of which were lifted on the announcement night
- 2016â4 enclosures stolen
A few years ago, Apple began removing traces of unreleased products from iOS builds.
Its renewed focus on preventing leaks is on full display with virtually no iPhone 8 component leaks as of yet, unlike in years past when new iPhone parts would leak out of Asian factories for months in advance.
Not even Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, formerly with 9to5Mac, could obtain iPhone 8 parts. Rice âgleefully recountedâ a blog post by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, in which he criticized Gurman for not having details on Appleâs new HomePod speaker before it was released.
Like many other manufacturers, Apple has long been using special cases to conceal iPhone prototypes during testing in the wild. Still, no security is perfect so leaks remain a fact of life. Security always comes down to the human factor, as we saw with the iPhone 4 leak.
For an in-depth overview of Apple’s commitment to corporate secrecy, I wholeheartedly recommend Adam Lashinksyâs book âInside Appleâ, available on iBooks Store for $14.99.