Apple’s security chief criticizes EU law on installing apps not from the App Store

Apple’s head of security engineering, Ivan Krstic, gave a long interview to The Independent, which talked about the company’s attitude to privacy.

Oddly enough, most of the work on sending iPhones takes place in Paris. There, Apple specialists are trying to hack their own smartphones. For example, using lasers and high-precision sensors, they identify security vulnerabilities in gadgets and try to eliminate them before the devices fall into the hands of users.

The company notes that it is responsible to customers and constantly works on the hardware infrastructure until the box is unpacked. Then, of course, the work also continues, but then another level of security is used – software.

Each chip is tested for several years before production begins. During this process, close all weak points. Thus, Cupertino residents are several years ahead of hackers.

Apple’s security engineering team deploys its hardware to make products available to customers.

Apple is no less responsible about the applications that are allowed to run on their gadgets. This is precisely why the App Store was developed – the largest place in which the chance of “catching a virus or spyware” is minimal.

Not long ago, EU laws were passed obliging companies to allow the installation of applications from different sources. Apple claims that the most reliable installation method would be to use the App Store and others, but critics disagree – they believe that this does not give the apple corporation too much power.

Krstic reasserted the company’s official position and criticized the new law. The idea that users are given additional choice in this way is “false.”

This is a big misconception that we have tried to talk about over and over again. In processing, software that users in Europe need to use – sometimes business applications, sometimes private software, social software – may be available only because of the attitude of the store.

In this case, users will not want to get this software from a mechanical distribution that they trust. And so, fundamentally, it’s simply not a given that the users who remain in existence today choose to get all of their software from the App Store.

— Ivan Krstic

It is not a fact that users can download all programs from the App Store if other sources are available, and this can put their device at risk. They simply won’t have the choice to download an app from a trusted store. [9to5]