An inside look at the Apple Leaks business

All that chatters may be golden

We all know that Apple is a big business, but just how big is the business of Apple leaks? It looks like we’re beginning to find out on strength of a pair of Vice reports, which lifts the lid – and it should be interesting reading to any Apple news watcher.

An inside source on the outside

‘Apple’s Double Agent’ tells the story of a man who was active in the community of people trading in leaked Apple information. He began to play both sides when he started to provide Apple with information pertaining to other leakers to help plug these leaks, an action for which he says he wasn’t compensated. He was also informing media.

“Unbeknownst to other members in the community, he shared with Apple personal information of people who sold stolen iPhone prototypes from China, Apple employees who leaked information online, journalists who had relationships with leakers and sellers, and anything that he thought the company would find interesting and worth investigating,” Vice writes.

The man first began helping Apple when he alerted the company to a phishing campaign against store employees in 2017.

He tried to help Apple again when a leaked copy of iOS 14 appeared, when he offered Apple information about people connected to that transaction, and a top-secret iPhone that was used at that time. He also claims to have identified the person who was undermining Apple security and informed Apple.

Shumeyko had hoped that Apple would recognize his help in some way, and now feels disgruntled because that didn’t happen. He had hoped for “a reward to jump start his life.”

How much for the data?

The report is interesting in a bunch of different ways, but it also reflects the value of the Apple leaks industry:

• Prototype iPhones are sold for thousands of dollars in China.
• He was able to sell information to a well-known Apple website in exchange for Bitcoin now worth thousands of dollars.
• There is a huge public interest in such information which translates into huge quantities of website traffic.

The bottom line? The Apple leaks industry remains buoyant. Should it be?

 Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.