http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72877-0.html By Leander Kahney Mar, 06, 2007 A judge ordered Apple last January to pay the $700,000 legal fees of two websites that reported on an unreleased product code-named "Asteroid." Apple had sued the sites seeking the identities of leakers within its ranks, but lost the case. I was talking recently with an ex-Apple staffer who worked high up at the company for many years, often closely with CEO Steve Jobs. The programmer, who asked not to be named, was convinced the Asteroid product was invented, a figment of Jobs' imagination dreamed up to find the source of leaks -- the old "canary trap." It's an espionage trick used to find the source of a leak: Feed each person in the organization a slightly different piece of information, and see who sings. The name comes from the novels of Tom Clancy; British spies called the tactic a "barium meal," after a drink given before stomach X-rays to illuminate the digestive system. "That's how devious they are," the programmer said. "They wouldn't do it with a real product. There's too many details and too many legitimate ways information could leak out. But with a phony product, Steve knows what information went where. The proof is that the product hasn't come out -- and still hasn't." At first I thought this was plausible -- Jobs certainly seems capable of it -- but think about it for a second. If Jobs was setting a canary trap, why would he need to sue the outlets of his misinformation? If it were a trap, the publication of any information he'd planted would be all he needed. Going on to sue the publications is an unnecessary step. (Unless he were trying to cover up the canary trap -- but this is too devious even for a spy novel). Canary traps are widely used to uncover industrial espionage. A private investigator once told me about a Silicon Valley company in the mid-'80s that had a problem losing key customers to the competition. The investigator had several lists of customers made up, each sprinkled with bogus phone numbers. Different lists were given to different people. The investigator just waited to see which of the phony phone lines he'd set up began ringing. Recently, it seems to have become common knowledge that Jobs plays these kind of espionage games. Recent stories about how the iPhone was kept secret mentioned tactics like nondisclosure agreements, misinformation and phony prototypes. These stories were much discussed on blogs, Slashdot and Digg. It's true that Jobs is very secretive -- but he certainly doesn't play devious spy games. Here's how Jobs keeps secrets. Like every company in the Valley, Apple uses nondisclosure agreements and code names. There's no point telegraphing to the competition what you're up to if you don't have to. Jobs also keeps information on a need-to-know basis. Different product groups are told only what they must know to finish their parts of the product. It's a classic cell structure, like a spy organization. The executive team members are the only ones who know the big picture. Take the iPod name. The only department in Apple that knew the name of the iPod ahead of its unveiling was the graphics department, because it designed the product packaging and advertising materials. Everyone else referred to its code name, "Dulcimer." And then there are the rumors of hardware prototypes disguised in big polycarbonate boxes to hide their final shape. One ex-Apple executive told me that the hardware is put in big boxes to make it easy to debug, just like a Radio Shack project box. It doesn't hurt that no one can see what the final product will look like -- especially when prototypes are shipped to outside partners for testing or development -- but that's not their primary purpose. Some of Apple's secrecy measures get a little extreme. When Jobs hired Ron Johnson from Target to head up Apple's retail effort, he asked him to use an alias for several months lest anyone get wind the Mac maker was working on retail stores. Johnson was listed on Apple's phone directory under a false name, which he used to check in to hotels. Apple's head of marketing, Phil Schiller, said he's not allowed to tell his wife or kids what he's working on. His teenage son, an avid iPod fan, was desperate to know what his dad was cooking up at work, but daddy had to keep his trap shut because he might get canned. Even Jobs himself is subject to his own strictures: He took an iPod hi-fi boombox home for testing, but kept it covered with a black cloth. And he listened to it only when no one else was around. Why is Apple so secretive? Many think it's a quirk of Jobs' control freakery, but it's simply good business and good marketing. Jobs makes millions of dollars in free advertising every time he steps onto a stage to reveal a new product. It's called "event marketing," and he learned it from his marketing mentor, John Sculley, who Jobs recruited to be Apple's CEO in 1983. Sculley made product announcements an event, a piece of theater, and the press happily rolled the TV crews to cover it. And since the unveiling of the original Mac in 1984, Jobs has used the same strategy. If everyone knows what the product is ahead of time, it's not news. And that's why Jobs keeps his million-dollar secrets. -==- Leander Kahney is managing editor at Wired News and the author of two books about technology culture: The Cult of Mac and The Cult of IPod. He contributes to the Cult of Mac blog. _________________________________________ Visit the InfoSec News Security Bookstore http://www.shopinfosecnews.org
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