Tech giant Apple has hired two hackers who were able to penetrate the company's Mac computers.

LegbaCore founder Xeno Kovah revealed that his partner, Corey Kellenberg, was hired by the Cupertino-based tech company in order to work on "low level security" in November 2015 The news did not make it to the mainstream media until December when another security researcher revealed the news during a security conference presentation.

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During his presentation, security researcher Trammell Hudson revealed that Apple acquired firmware security company LegbaCore.

LegbaCore is a company best known for creating a proof-of-concept virus-worm hybrid called Thunderstrike 2. The virus targets Mac computers and can spread to multiple devices even if these are not connected to the Internet.

What makes the Thunderstrike 2 even more notorious is the fact that it targets the firmware of Mac computers before spreading itself into the OS X operating system. By infecting the firmware, Thunderstrike 2 can remain undetected by anti-virus programs and can stay hidden on the firmware even after multiple OS reinstalls and reformats, according to Engadget.

Thunderstrike 2 was launched in September 2015. For good measures, Apple acquired LegbaCore two months after.

In July 2015, Kovah told Wired, "[The attack is] really hard to detect, it's really hard to get rid of it, and it's really hard to protect against something that's running inside the firmware. For most users that's really a throw-your-machine-away kind of situation."

Kovah added that most Mac owners do not have the capability or knowledge how to open their machine and "electrically reprogram the chip."

Kovah's research is gold to some organizations, especially the intelligence community and other nefarious groups. However, instead of selling it to the highest bidder, Kovah responsibly informed Apple of the vulnerabilities and the tech giant promptly released necessary patches in order to fix the issue.

Tagsapple, Apple Mac, Apple hackers, LegbaCore, Apple hack, Thunderstrike 2, Thunderstrike hack