The Latest in IT Security

Apple’s history with Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn and its sprawling network of suppliers in Southeast Asia is checkered with stories concerning the human rights abuses rampant in the region, and the company has made much progress in the effort to resolve them. Today, a Bloomberg Businessweek report reveals how, following last year’s iPhone 5 announcement, the pressure to produce components for the new Apple smartphone resulted in workers on factory lines being forced into debt and indentured servitude. The report details the push to find workers to produce the iPhone 5’s 8-megapixel camera, and the means by which companies like Flextronics International, one of Apple’s largest suppliers, recruit for positions on factory assembly lines. This practice amounts to the very same kind of bonded labor that Apple has tried to combat in its recent supply-chain audits.