A 'boy wonder' hacker hired by Apple after cracking the iPhone has lost his job - because he forgot to reply to an email.
'Comex', aka Nicholas Allegra, was hired by the company as an intern in 2011 after he created JailbreakMe, a tool to help iPhone users 'crack' their devices by simply visiting a website.
Jailbreaking is a way to break certain protections on an operating system to allow installation of unverified apps and change basic elements of the OS, such as keyboards, app launchers and other features.
Comex rose to fame online at just 19 for creating the absurdly easy and elegant tool.
Then in August 2011 he announced he was "getting bored" with the hacker life, and had taken up an internship with Apple - who apparently decided it would be better to have Comex on the inside working for them than on the outside working against them.
But now things appear to have gone sour. Recently Comex wrote on Twitter:
"As for why?" he added later. "Because I forgot to reply to an email."
He explained to Forbes that the mistake involved ignoring an HR note about extending his contract - a move which is apparently taken extremely seriously at the company.
There may also be more involved - but we aren't likely to hear about it. Either way Comex said "it wasn't a bad ending" and said he enjoyed his time at the company.
As to whether or not he'll be returning to his old hacker ways - and whether his contract with Apple will even let him do that - we'll have to wait and see.
But as Forbes noted, he may already have another target: