Remember the Corellium? The virtualization company was sued some time ago by Apple over the creation of a faithful (and unauthorized, of course) copy of iOS – a copy used by developers to create applications and exploit system flaws without Apple’s supervision. The process was running smoothly, but now it has encountered a formidable obstacle: the United States Government.
More specifically, as informed by the Forbes, The US Department of Justice asked for a postponement of the testimony of Chris Wade, co-founder of Corellium. Apple requested testimony a few months ago, but the federal agency wants to know what kind of evidence the company is planning to present to the court before authorizing the summons.
Last week, one of Apple’s lawyers reported that Cupertino’s defense team had obtained «photographs that reveal highly sensitive information about sources and methods related to Apple’s internal investigation.» There is still no information about the nature of these images, but a previous record of the process cited “concerns about the National security» from the USA. Apple said it would deliver the evidence to the court only after assurances about their confidentiality.
That is, at the moment, the situation is a veritable snooker: Apple does not want to reveal the evidence before obtaining a guarantee that it will be protected, and the US Department of Justice prevents the process from continuing until it knows what it is. the images are treated.
According to a source heard by Forbes, the government’s interest in the case has to do with a criminal investigation currently underway, but which is not directly linked to any of the companies. David Hetch, a lawyer for Corellium, said that Apple would be «getting into a difficult situation», citing the values ​​of the company it defends as «patriotic» and «respectful of US intellectual property laws».
At the moment, there is no way of knowing how this impasse will be resolved – we will have to wait for the next chapters of history.
Companies afraid to work with Corellium
Even though the process is still ongoing, in one aspect Apple has already achieved a kind of victory over its rival: according to Motherboard, several companies that have already done business with Corellium are afraid to continue working with the company or use its products.
The reason is simple: most of them who use (or have used) Corellium software are developers from the iOS / iPadOS world who are, in some way, connected to the Apple ecosystem. At the same time, Apple launched an intense investigation into the companies that did business with its rival in the courts; with this, companies are afraid that the Cupertino giant will launch reprisals because of the use of (allegedly) illegal software.
A security researcher stated the following in the report:
Apple created an effect of fear. I don’t know if this is intentional, but when they nominate individuals in companies that have stood in favor [da Corellium], I definitely believe that some kind of retaliation is possible.
The researcher’s speech certainly refers to the investigation, suggested to justice by Apple, of two companies that would have done business with Corellium: the Santander Bank and the intelligence group L3Harris Technologies, as we mentioned in this article.
Obviously, not all researchers and developers will stop using Corellium products overnight because of this fear: another source heard by Motherboard said he continues to use the company’s software to test applications and bugs – in his specific case, in the Go programming language.
The fact is that, with or without victory in the courts, the Apple has already managed – in a way – to light the wick of a game changer. Whether the merit of it all is on the right side of the story or not … well, this is an entirely different discussion. What do you think?
via 9to5Mac, MacRumors
