Ivan Krstic, Distinguished Alumnus 2024

There are big jobs – and then there’s Ivan Krstić’s job. Known as one of the world’s top experts in digital security, Krstić serves as head of security engineering and architecture for Apple, responsible for the end-to-end security of all Apple products. That’s more than 2.2 billion iPhones, iPads, Macs, and more, used everywhere from kindergarten classes to the halls of government.

 

Krstić has never shied away from big ambitions and responsibilities. In fact, he landed at Apple at the age of 23 after emailing company founder Steve Jobs in the middle of the night, telling him, “I want to work on things that I can be passionate about…. I could do great things at Apple.” He received a phone call the next morning.

 

Born in Croatia, Krstić earned a scholarship to Cranbrook at the age of 15, traveling to the U.S. on his own. His goal was to attend an elite university like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and knew attending a school like Cranbrook could help make that happen.

 

At Cranbrook, Krstić found teachers who were as enthusiastic about learning as he was, like chemistry teacher Ed Van Dam, who had taught graduate classes at a university, and history teacher Bob Cowie, who kept a separate apartment just to store all his books. And there was David Watson, Krstić’s faculty advisor on the Crane-Clarion newspaper, who “was always willing to look at my essays and offer suggestions, often with so much red ink that it seemed like he had written more notes than I had written text.”

 

He adds, “Cranbrook was a deeply formative experience. I was never someone who loved studying, but I studied hard during those years because I found so many of my Cranbrook classes fascinating.”

 

From the age of five, Krstić had been interested in computers. “I got a Commodore Amiga in 1990, and it was dazzling,” he says. When his parents got him a more serious PC computer a few years later, he discovered that while it was “useful, it wasn’t at all fun.” So he taught himself to program it, “to make this new computer do what I told it to do,” he says. “Once I figured that out, I was completely hooked.”

 

In his first year at Harvard, Krstić continued a volunteer project for Zagreb Children’s Hospital in Croatia, creating an electronic medical record system -- a project he had started while at Cranbrook. It was an ambitious effort, but he lacked resources and support and was unable to complete the full system. “It proved too much for an 18-year-old,” he says.

 

That work, though, inspired his next professional effort, joining One Laptop per Child, a nonprofit launched at MIT with the goal of transforming education for children around the world. “I was keenly aware that if I had not been lucky enough to get a computer when I was young, it’s extremely unlikely I would have discovered my interest in technology, or wound up at Cranbrook, or later Harvard,” he says. He wanted to give that same opportunity to children around the world.

 

While at One Laptop per Child, Krstić developed the novel Bitfrost computer security system, earning the 21-year-old recognition from MIT Technology Review as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under 35 – its youngest ever honoree. “It was humbling and deeply, deeply meaningful,” he says. “(Receiving the award) felt like an earthquake of validation.”

 

So, it did not seem so outrageous for the 23-year-old Krstić to send that email to Steve Jobs in the middle of the night. It turned out to be the perfect match, with Krstić creating a security system for Apple that is the envy of developers worldwide.

 

“In computer security, you’re fighting human adversaries – they’re smart, motivated, and adaptable – so you never get to fully conquer the problem,” he says. “If you put up a fence, the attacker will bring a ladder. If you electrify the fence, they’ll wear rubber gloves…. (But) if you make it incredibly difficult and expensive to hack your system, most attackers won’t be able to turn a profit even if they break in – so they’ll move on to easier targets.”

 

Krstić says he’s most proud of the Security Engineering and Architecture team he has built at Apple. “I believe it’s the top security engineering group in the world today,” he says. The team recruits top defensive engineers from industry and academia and pairs them with world-class hackers. “We find these people and make them a simple offer: come to Apple and do the best work of your life.”

 

That goal of continuously improving drives Krstić. “For me, the highest aspiration of computer security is that no one has to think about it, or care, or know that it exists – that we can simply place our trust in the technology that surrounds us, and that the trust won’t be betrayed,” he says. “(Every morning), I tell myself: a better world is possible, but no one else will build it for us. And then I get to work.”

 

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