
Apple Factory Thefts: Secret Tunnels, Hidden Crawl Spaces - ballmers_peak
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-apple-factory-thefts-secret-tunnels-hidden-crawl-spaces?pu=hackernews11vvpt&utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=unlock
======
windowtoss
Throwaway account to be safe. ————

While I did not deal with Apple specifically, I did however deal with another
major mobile phone corporation — at that time — and i’m sure most of you have
heard of them: Research In Motion, RIM, BlackBerry, etc.

This was during a time, my guess is 2008-2010, when forums, unreleased product
leaks, and blogs were a very _big_ business and leaks were lucrative to
everybody. As a BlackBerry user myself, I found myself spending a lot of time
in the old Crackberry.com forums, which happen to have a lot of RIM employees,
insiders, and also black market dealers. I’ve soon found myself in contact
with people who were passing me (!) information — just an anonymous forum
poster.

After a while, I’ve gained the trust of some of my sources and things started
to get a little different. Instead of just information, I was getting files of
unreleased BlackBerry OS for products that weren’t even released at the time.
[0]

Eventually I was given the opportunity to gain access to unreleased devices.
Without mentioning any specifics, just in case, let’s just say these phones
were like hot potatoes. If you were lucky, the device PIN hasn’t been
blacklisted — meaning no BBM, service, your phone is now a brick — by RIM
after they notice its missing. How long it’d continue working for was a
mystery. Some would go for weeks, others would be dead by the time it arrived
in the main. The one thing you wanted to look for? The “Property of Research
in Motion Limited” sticker on the back. [1]

But to get back to it’s relevance, I would sometimes learn from the sellers
how these phones got _out_ of the building without being noticed and there
were a few ways.

1\. Metal detectors and x-ray machines: In some areas, employees would have
their bags and body scanned by security and this was one of the easiest, yet
terrifying option of getting products out of the building. Along side the
x-ray machine, there would be a gap between that and the wall. When you walk
up to put your stuff down on the belt, just slide the phone down the side and
grab it on the other side. With this you’re only doing 1 phone at a time.

2\. Windows: Some of them would open so all you had to do was open the window
and .. drop the phone down into the bush below. Pick it up after work and
nobody can check.

3\. Retailers: As with anything, it’s not what you know but who you know. If
you’re becoming friends with your manufactures rep, you can get easy access to
some gems. Mind you this was all being done in Canada so these phones were
being handed around like drugs.

4\. Self smuggling: They would just stick phones, shells, etc. in their pants
and try to walk out without alerting security and/or bypassing it.

Granted this all was before security tightened up and well before RIMs
eventual downfall. While some of it may seem far fetched, let me tell you one
thing: if you’re going to deal in unreleased phones, don’t use their phones
built-in messaging system (BBM) to conduct business.. Because a nice fella
from the security team at RIM will give you a call on your personal cell phone
one late night and tell you that they know what you’re doing and to stop it.

So I stopped that night.

— [0]: RIM was notorious with changing product code ames and they also had
multiple numbering schemes for GSM, CDMA, or international models (ie os v9.5
for 9200 would be the GSM version but v9.5 for a 9220 is the CDMA version).

[1]: [https://recombu-
content.imgix.net/app/uploads/13578-M11755-1...](https://recombu-
content.imgix.net/app/uploads/13578-M11755-10091.jpg?fit=crop&auto=format%2Cenhance%2Ccompress&w=670&auto=format%2Cenhance%2Ccompress)

~~~
ergothus
> Because a nice fella from the security team at RIM will give you a call on
> your personal cell phone one late night and tell you that they know what
> you’re doing and to stop it.

I don't know if anyone else has this reaction, but I find this to be a great
alternative to the litigiousness that is normally reported.

> So I stopped that night.

...and good on you for allowing "not suing" to be a successful option. (I'm
taking no position on the behavior BEFORE you got caught, but once you were,
you didn't "force" them into more extreme options)

~~~
rustguy
Seems a bit in the clouds. The poster knowingly took ownership of stolen
property and got a warning over it. Stopping after you're caught doesn't right
your wrong.

~~~
ergothus
> Stopping after you're caught doesn't right your wrong.

Nope! I still remain happy to see that something gets stopped without legal
action, and seeing a company that didn't go for the throat succeeding in their
defense.

Just because a wrong isn't righted doesn't mean we can't be happy the
situation didn't get worse.

~~~
rustguy
Somehow I think if the poster conspired to steal your own cell phone, you'd
feel differently. What about a shoplifter at Target? You're implying that
companies prosecuting theft are somehow morally inferior to RIM.

~~~
pixelbash
Bit of a straw man isn't that? Your one single cell phone is a bit different
from one of hundreds of prototypes not owned by anyone in particular or even
intended for sale.

~~~
de_watcher
I would be mad at someone stealing prototypes I use for development.

------
hthtegr
It wasn't lost on me when I was working on a contract for a very large
secretive tech company that if I leaked info that I had it would affect the
share price.

I didn't, but it made me realise how improbable it is that these companies
actually manage to keep stuff so secret.

I bet there are hundreds of people reading HN right now who are keeping quiet
about stuff that would be explosive if made public. Quite impressive really.

~~~
koz1000
In a previous lifetime I worked for a company that had a Lucasfilm
merchandising license for Star Wars: Episode 1.

It was made precisely clear what the damages would be if script details leaked
out prematurely, and they would be enumerated in dollars and the figure was
incredibly large.

Multiple-commas large. At least two, possibly 3.

The project team toiled for nearly a year behind a locked door, we couldn't
discuss a single piece of the project with them until the premiere date.

~~~
CamelCaseName
If you're interested in seeing what happens when you do leak movie details (or
in this case, the full movie) -- take a look at William Morarity, who leaked
The Revenant, 6 days ahead of it's theatrical release.

[https://torrentfreak.com/man-leaked-revenant-online-
fined-1-...](https://torrentfreak.com/man-leaked-revenant-online-
fined-1-1m-160930/)

------
inlined
> Apple’s suppliers are forbidden from referring to Apple by name or its
> project code names anywhere in buildings.

In which buildings? Surely (at least vendor specific) codenames are necessary
for basic communication. I was affected when a partner team was sidelined by
an Apple contract. It was a fireable offense to say <codename> was Apple or
leak it, but you could use <codename> internally to indicate that you had
mandated commitments and may not meet partnership goals.

~~~
metalchianti
<codename> is Apple was the worst kept secret at my last company. Even our
contractors knew who it was.

~~~
jonknee
When you're ordering in Apple like volumes it has to be very difficult to
hide.

~~~
yellowapple
And also when the things you're building (presumably) have Apple logos on
them.

~~~
jonknee
There are tons of components in Apple's devices and only a few Apple logos. If
you get an order for 70 million higher end tiny lenses you can narrow down the
list of potential customers pretty quickly, no logos needed.

------
jandrese
I wonder how many of these extraordinary leak prevention measures would be
necessary if Apple manufactured their devices in the US or Europe? The
temptations for the workers would be the same (big payoffs are a universal
temptation), but there might be more of a cultural barrier to overcome. Also
I'm fully willing to believe that US authorities would prosecute the crap out
of someone stealing from Apple, whereas in China the penalty seems to be that
you lose your crappy sweatshop job and have to walk across the street to get a
new one.

Apple broke up the supply chain (and probably not a small number of bones) for
the time being in China, but it will grow back. The money is too tempting.

~~~
MuffinFlavored
> if Apple manufactured their devices in the US or Europe?

Unless I wildly misunderstand something, I'm pretty sure Apple could not
produce X amount of devices at Y quality + rate for Z dollars in the US or
Europe.

~~~
benologist
They couldn't hoard a quarter trillion dollars while doing it. It would be a
nightmare if they only had a hundred and fifty billion to tide them over until
their next big thing.

~~~
kccqzy
Do you want Apple to get into the business of manufacturing specialized
screws? They could but it's not their core competency. So spend money?

~~~
BillinghamJ
They do have their own screws already

------
nitrogen
It's fascinating the lengths people will go to both when protecting and
leaking unreleased products and manufacturing techniques.

While I would do the same in Apple and Samsung's position, I am worried about
the effects of durable secrecy on the sustainability of our society and
markets. Markets need competition, and societies need public domain knowledge.
If somehow a critical supplier is eliminated there would be no way for a new
entrant to fill the gap quickly since all the critical knowledge is secret and
centralized.

~~~
wongarsu
That's exactly why patents were invented: publish your secrets, in return the
state gives you exclusive rights on the idea for 25 years. After that everyone
can use the instructions from the patent application as they wish.

Of course that system doesn't really work as intended anymore.

~~~
Terr_
Most of the things Apple is trying to keep secret -- like case designs --
shouldn't be patentable anyway.

------
module0000
I was hoping for pictures of the secret tunnels and hidden crawl spaces :(

~~~
sverige
Here's a tunnel built by El Chapo's people instead. Hope it helps scratch that
itch.

[https://viceland-assets-
cdn.vice.com/viceblog/64645854tunnel...](https://viceland-assets-
cdn.vice.com/viceblog/64645854tunnel.jpg)

~~~
Operyl
Wow. That’s a lot more professional looking than I expected it to be.

~~~
darkpuma
The men who made it were in fact professional miners and engineers from what I
understand.

~~~
antod
I can't help wondering about your word "were" (past tense)?

Doing secret work for a ruthless criminal gang must be risky.

~~~
Simon_says
Were. Still are. But they were, too.

~~~
thunderrabbit
Sorry for the convenience.

------
FruitCompanyEmp
>>> Pregnant workers have complained about the use of metal detectors at
facilities that make new products, only to be told they would have to change
to less sensitive roles if they weren’t willing to submit to screening.
Apple’s security policies specifically say no exceptions can be made for
pregnancy.

Throwaway for obvious reasons.

Apple mandates that Foxconn worker's worker's wear uniforms with the only
pockets on the knees. The goal is to minimize the perception of inappropriate
touching during pat downs. Apple also mandates that exit security have a
dedicated lane for female workers to be wanded by female guards.

~~~
tinus_hn
What does that even mean? Do these people think you can just walk around the
metal detectors in an airport if you’re pregnant?

~~~
dangrossman
> If you are pregnant and still concerned, you can opt out of going through
> screening technology altogether and requesting a pat down. The pat-down will
> be conducted by a female Transportation Security Officer, who will advise
> you about the pat-down details.

[https://www.tsa.gov/blog/2014/07/22/tsa-travel-tips-
pregnant...](https://www.tsa.gov/blog/2014/07/22/tsa-travel-tips-pregnant-
passengers)

~~~
tinus_hn
That is about the ‘see through your clothes’ advanced imaging devices and not
merely metal detectors. Anyone can opt out of these.

~~~
dangrossman
That is not the case. A pregnant woman may opt out of screening devices
regardless of which type is in use. They are taken to the side and receive a
pat down from a female agent. I thought I provided a sufficiently
authoritative source for this (it's both in writing and shown in the video),
but there are dozens of others you can look up on Google. Here's another,
"reasons an individual may opt out of metal detection or AIT (advanced imaging
technology) screening include: pregnancy"
[https://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/foia-
readingroom/pat...](https://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/foia-
readingroom/pat-down_training_procedures_april_2018-1600112rr-1_pt2.pdf)

------
meerita
I remember that huge mistake from one of the Apple employees that had lost an
iPhone 4 in a bar. He was testing on the field, cleverly disguised as an
iPhone 3GS.

------
evmar
It's interesting that Apple is policing this. Wouldn't it make more sense for
Apple to have some sort of "if you leak you are liable for $X" clause in their
contract with the factories, so that the factories themselves have an
incentive to prevent this?

~~~
ibero
_Meanwhile, Apple’s suppliers are forbidden from referring to Apple by name or
its project code names anywhere in buildings. Suppliers must reimburse Apple
for investigations and often must pay penalties when leaks are traced back to
them._ \- article

------
aogl
"Audacious" "people familiar with the..." . How many times do we have to read
that in this article!

~~~
kuzimoto
I have to agree, those were getting kind of repetitive and annoying.

------
eugenekolo2
Don't know what happened but the first time I clicked this link it brought me
to unrendered HTML and obfuscated JS. Can't reproduce... but perhaps beware of
malware.

~~~
eugenekolo2
Reproduced. The error page contains malware. Appears to be some sort of
keylogger, but I didn't actually analyze it.

[https://gist.github.com/eugenekolo/81c1e7ff1c699cfbb584fdd6b...](https://gist.github.com/eugenekolo/81c1e7ff1c699cfbb584fdd6bde3adf5)

~~~
Deimorz
If that's not just on your end, hosting malware is a really big issue for a
site that charges $400 USD/year for a subscription to be able to read their
articles.

------
Deimorz
This is an aside, but I think it's interesting: The Information is a hard-
paywalled site with a very expensive subscription ($39 USD monthly or $399
annually). Normally you can't read any articles on the site without a
subscription.

However, the query string on this link bypasses the paywall for this specific
article:

    
    
        ?pu=hackernews11vvpt&utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=unlock
    

If you remove the pu= variable, you'll hit the usual paywall.

The submitter's profile says "Director of Growth @ The Information". They've
been submitting The Information articles to HN for the last couple of weeks
with paywall bypasses to try to attract new subscribers.

It's good content, but it's also definitely advertising. Is that a problem?
I'm not sure, this is a pretty unusual situation.

~~~
paulcole
It seems to be acceptable for HN readers to share workarounds for paywalled
content (although it's a practice I strongly disagree with) so I don't see why
HN would have a problem with the content creator themselves providing a
workaround.

~~~
dang
They've coordinated it with us by email. I think it's working out great so
far.

~~~
paulcole
Yeah, I don’t disagree. I do disagree with your handling of other paywall
workarounds.

------
Theodores
They should deliberately be leaking the whole time, some ideas being
surreptitiously tested on an unassuming public. In this way any real leak gets
ignored as the person making the leak is not as well connected as the posse
from the PR company manufacturing fake leaks for Apple.

As part of the operation some leaks can be genuine so the press have full
confidence in the PR operation, with it always providing them with tid-bits of
speculation.

Who knows, Apple could have such an operation going already, unlikely though.

Microsoft did a similar thing during the early OS wars when they just
announced they would be doing something without necessarily doing it. This
killed off the incentive for competitors to enter the marketspace. Apple could
do a similar thing with phone features.

