Apple has begun to notify security researchers that they will begin to receive iPhones as part of the company’s new Apple Security Research Device Program. Back in July, Apple announced that it was making a special type of iPhone consumers wouldn’t be able to buy. Instead, this hacker-friendly iDevice would be sent exclusively to security researchers. This week, that new iPhone started shipping. Watch the Latest Apple Technology News Below As you’d expect, the iPhones consumers receive include a locked-down version of iOS so as to make it very difficult for malicious software and hackers to take control of your device. However, security researchers have to work with the same version, making it that much more difficult to analyze and discover security holes in the mobile OS. Apple realized this and decided to offer a hacker-friendly iPhone to the research community.