Ian Beer is a British computer security expert and white hat hacker, currently residing in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and working for

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

as part of its

Project Zero Project Zero is a team of security analysts employed by Google tasked with finding zero-day vulnerabilities. It was announced on 15 July 2014. History After finding a number of flaws in software used by many end-users while researching other p ...

. He has been lauded by some as one of the best

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

hackers. Beer was the first security expert to publish his findings under the "Project Zero" name in the spring of 2014; at this time, the project was not yet revealed and crediting the newly discovered vulnerabilities to it led to some speculation. He is known for discovering a large number of security vulnerabilities in

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

products, including iOS,

Safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...

and

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

, as well as helping create jailbreaks for iOS versions. One such discovery forced Apple to rewrite significant parts of the macOS and iOS kernel. Beer is also a vocal critic of Apple concerning its bug bounty program for iOS announced in 2016. The invite only program has been accused of low payouts. Beer has also criticized the company for not disclosing to its users why updates that fix the bugs should be installed.

References

British computer specialists Google employees Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{UK-compu-bio-stub