Nicholas Allegra – hackerul mai destept decit Apple

Stii cine e Nicholas Allegra? Da, pina astazi nici tu nu auzisei de numele lui. Dar daca iti spun numele de @Comex. De el ai auzit? Este creatorul celebrului JailbreakMe. La numai 19 ani el a reusit sa dovedeasca de doua ori ca este mai destept decit Apple. Munca lui @comex a facut Apple sa scoata un update de securitate mai rapid decit oricare altul in istoria iOS.

Tanarul locuieste cu parintii sai, in New York si chiar daca e cunoscut in toata lumea, se poarta absolut normal si incearca sa-si gaseasca de lucru si sa mearga la Universitate.

Revista Forbes publica astazi un material in premiera despre Nicholas. In cuvintele lui, totul pare atit de simplu:

“It feels like editing an English paper,” Allegra says simply, his voice croaking as if he just woke up, though we’re speaking at 9:30 pm. “You just go through and look for errors. I don’t know why I seem to be so effective at it.”

JailbreakMe isn’t intended for theft or vandalism: It merely lets users install any application they want on their devices. But jailbreaking, 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.

Allegra 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.

The young hacker taught himself to code in the programming language Visual Basic at the age of nine, gleaning tricks from Web forums. “By the time I took a computer science class in high school, I already knew everything,” he says. When he found that he couldn’t save a screenshot from the Nintendo Wii video game Super Smash Brothers to his computer, he spent hours deciphering the file, and later worked on other Wii hacks, getting a feel for its obscure operating system.

Stiu ca afirmatia din titlu poate fi calificata drept un truism. Orice Hacker care reuseste sa sparga un sistem de operare atit de bine pazit precum iOS este, de fapt, mai destept decit inginerii Apple care au creat acel sistem de operare.