19-year-old hacked iPhone, was hired by Apple and then had to leave because he didn't respond to an important email

Over 10 years ago, a hacker was hired by Apple. Shortly afterwards he had to leave again – because he missed an email. (Image: Kasia Derenda – Unsplash)

The iPhone was introduced on January 9, 2007 by then Apple boss Steve Jobs and, a few generations later, is still one of the most popular smartphones ever.

But the iPhone also has weaknesses, as Apple discovered. Soon after its release, the first jailbreaks, i.e. hacks for the iPhone, appeared.

Against this background, we came across a story that you may not know yet: It is that of the then 19-year-old hacker Nicholas Allegra aka Comex.

When did what happen? Comex managed to hack the iPhone 4 in 2010 and made the JailbreakMe tools available to the public.

As a result, Apple did not sue the hacker, as one might expect. Instead, they hired him.

But his dream job was over quicker than expected because he was quickly fired again – because he didn't respond to an email in time, as Forbes reported at the time.

Impressive skills with consequences

Why did Apple hire the hacker? The 18-year-old was the first hacker to make a jailbreak for the iPhone 4 publicly available. He also released JailbreakMe 3.0, a tool that could be used to crack several Apple devices – including the iPad 2.

When it became known that a teenager had single-handedly decrypted what was probably the world's most restricted operating system for private users, it probably caused a stir among some people at Apple.

Nicholas Allegra aka Comex in 2011. (Image: Forbes)

Charlie Miller, a former NSA analyst, also revealed to Forbes at the time that he was impressed by Allegra's abilities.

This is how the technology company became aware of Comex and hired him as a “remote intern” at Apple.

The exact relationship between the company and Comex is unclear, but we know that the employment relationship was terminated by Apple after a year, as the young hacker announced on Twitter (now X) at the time.

Link to Twitter content

Why was the hacker fired?

Shortly after the original announcement, Comex added on Twitter that he had been fired because he did not respond to an email:

Link to Twitter content

But the email was not an everyday message from colleagues. Rather, he was asked by email whether he wanted to extend his fixed-term contract, which was about to expire at the time.

According to Forbes, he didn't respond to the email until after he had already been terminated. After this deadline was missed, the offer was finally withdrawn, to the chagrin of Nicho Allegra, who would have liked to continue working at Apple.

Where did he go after that? After Apple didn't want to give him a second chance, another big tech company secured his talent: Google.

However, Allegra made it clear at the time that he would not work on Android because he never found the operating system exciting enough to hack.

You can find even more curious things from Apple's past here:

Have you ever had your iPhone jailbroken or did it yourself? Did everything always go well for you or have you experienced cases in which the iPhone then failed? What do you think of Comex's late reaction? And what do you think of Apple's reaction? Couldn't someone have personally asked if he wanted to continue working at Apple? Write us your opinion in the comments below!