We reported earlier today that the NSA had gained backdoor access to iPhones as far back as 2008. Now, Apple has issued a statement responding to an accusation that it may have aided the NSA in accessing those devices in a program known as DROPOUTJEEP.
The program was disclosed in a trove of documents leaked yesterday and shared by the security researcher Jacob Appelbaum and the German news magazine Der Spiegel.
Apple’s statement to AllThingsD, in full:
Apple has never worked with the NSA to create a backdoor in any of our products, including iPhone. Additionally, we have been unaware of this alleged NSA program targeting our products. We care deeply about our customers’ privacy and security. Our team is continuously working to make our products even more secure, and we make it easy for customers to keep their software up to date with the latest advancements. Whenever we hear about attempts to undermine Apple’s industry-leading security, we thoroughly investigate and take appropriate steps to protect our customers. We will continue to use our resources to stay ahead of malicious hackers and defend our customers from security attacks, regardless of who’s behind them.
The original slide, detailing DROPOUTJEEP can be seen above.
