Apple's "Double Agent" In The Leaker Community Speaks Out

This story is about a double agent supposedly working for Apple, filled with espionage, leaks, and betrayal. Andrey Shumeyko, also known as YRH04E and JVHResearch online, has been a part of Apple’s leaks and jailbreaking community.

But he claims to have worked as a double agent for Apple’s global security team by bringing them information on other leakers. He was part of many Apple “internal” communities through Twitter and Discord, which traded in leaked information and stolen prototypes.

Shumekyo has now decided to tell his story because he felt like the company took advantage of him. He feels Apple should have compensated him for the information he provided to the company’s global security team. According to Motherboard, Shumekyo provided Apple with information about many of the following leaks:

Personal information of people who sold stolen iPhone prototypes from China.
Apple employees who leaked information online.
Exposed journalists who had relationships with leakers and sellers.
Potential phishing campaign against some Apple Store employees in 2017.
Helped Apple investigate one of its worst leaks in recent memory in mid 2020.
Gave information about the iOS 14 leak.

Apple leaks

This is not the first time this has happened; back in 2017, an Apple employee infiltrated the early jailbreaking scene as a double agent. Shumeyko said he was willing to share information with Apple to try and redeem his past actions of leaking information.

A member of the jailbreaking community also confirmed that he was widely trusted to be the original source of that information. Another member also confirmed that Shumeyko advertised Apple’s leaked data on Twitter. The information he shared about the Apple leaks was valuable enough for their security team to contact him for over a year.

He contacted Apple to pass on the information he had, including the details of an Apple employee in Germany who was providing access to an internal Apple account after charging money. Later, he was told by Apple’s contact that the said employee had been fired.

However, Shumekyo was expecting some financial support for the information he brought in. But the Apple Global Security employee he was in contact with was noncommittal on that part. After months of frustration, he decided to sell some of his information to 9to5Mac, who wrote an exclusive article on it.

Shumeyko told Motherboard that he is still struggling financially. He recently tweeted that he is still selling Apple leaked data. He wants to cash out after years of being involved in all of this. “I just wanted to be heard for once, and the story I tell to be truthful,” Shumeyko said.

Apple has always been very secretive about its work despite having so many employees. It wouldn’t be surprising to see them use espionage tactics, considering Apple’s global security team employs former U.S. intelligence and FBI agents.

The Cupertino giant is yet to make any official statement on the leakster’s claims, however, despite the nature of his work, Shumeyko’s story kind of makes you feel sorry for him. “Now it feels like I ruined someone for no good reason, really,” he said with reference to the Germany employee.

As far as his financial troubles are concerned, there is no way to confirm if that’s true or not.