A researcher who worked for Google’s Project Zero is departing the security team and moving over to Apple, to help the iPhone maker improve the security of iOS and its other operating systems.
Revealed on Twitter on Saturday, Brandon Azad confirmed he was leaving Project Zero in favor of a position at Apple in the following week. He will be joining Apple to “continue my work improving Apple device security.”
Project Zero is Google’s security research team that concentrates on finding security issues and vulnerabilities in software, both in Google’s own products and of other major firms. The team works to improve the security of devices and software the general public uses by pointing out the issues to device producers, before performing an ethical disclosure of its findings.
This includes a collection of zero-click bugs in Apple’s Image I/O framework affecting all of Apple’s major platforms, and discovering exploits in hacked websites targeting iPhones.
My teammates at Project Zero have been among the kindest and smartest people I’ve met, and I’ve learned so much from them. I’ll really miss working alongside everyone on the team. Thank you all for these wonderful experiences, and keep on hacking!
— Brandon Azad (@_bazad) October 2, 2020
Azad is known for his work on iOS issues, and has been credited in Apple’s patch notes for both iOS and macOS releases multiple times. By moving to Apple, Azad may be able to assist in plugging some of the security holes he finds externally before they get discovered by research teamd like Project Zero.
In tweets, Azad calls his time at Project Zero “amazing” and says it’s “been an honor to share in this wonderful mission.” His teammates were among “the kindest and smartest people I’ve met, and I’ve learned so much from them,” he adds, before thanking them and urging to “keep on hacking.”