She failed to break Apple security, now she works there

Paulina Acosta ’22 sat down in an FIU lab one day with a challenge from her professor: Hack into Apple's smart home ecosystem.

"Apple Home" is a platform that allows iPhones, iPads and other Apple devices to communicate with smart lights, air conditioning controls, cameras and other gadgets around a home, giving a person complete control of their habitat in one place. Professor Selcuk Uluagac laid out every smart light bulb, garage door control and power outlet imaginable to give Acosta the best chance at intercepting communications between the various electronics so that she might hack into a device to understand its vulnerabilities and potentially help correct them.

She couldn't crack a single thing. 

Instead of frustration, Acosta felt admiration—and found her career calling.  

"The communications were so thoroughly and impressively obscure, it felt like I was looking at nonsense," Acosta recalls. "It made me really appreciate the cybersecurity measures this company takes." 

Today, Acosta works as an Apple engineer, programming the software that connects iPhones and AirTags. Her journey from aspiring tech professional to Apple engineer was far from straightforward. 

Finding her path 

When Acosta arrived in the United States with an electrical engineering degree from Colombia, she had a clear vision.  

"I fell in love with the idea of working at a big tech company. I saw people solving fascinating and complex engineering challenges, all while earning strong incomes. I wanted that for me, too. But I was struggling in my job interviews," she says. 

“I faced a fear of failure. Every time I applied for an internship, got an interview and failed it, it felt awful, like my one chance to work at that company was gone.” 

Recognizing that she needed to enhance both her technical skills and confidence, Acosta enrolled at FIU's Knight School of Computing and Information Sciences in the College of Engineering and Computing. It was a game-changing decision. 

Strengthening her foundation 

Apple wasn’t always Acosta’s dream company. In fact, she had only owned one Apple device before a career-altering experience changed her mind. 

It started when Professor Selcuk Uluagac hired Acosta as an undergraduate research assistant in the IoT Security Lab and asked her to write a guide explaining how someone could hack into Apple’s ‘smart home’ ecosystem.

Uluagac frequently encourages hands-on learning. His students experiment with various smart home devices, like smartwatches, smartphones and smart TVs. It prepares them to meet industry demands, he says. 

"I saw Paulina's potential and assigned her tasks involving Apple systems,” Uluagac says. "Her bravery and willingness to step out of her comfort zone immediately stood out. She was one of the most organized and hardworking undergraduate researchers I’ve had in my lab.” 

Acosta’s challenge to write a guide for how to hack into the Apple smart home ecosystem turned out to be less of an assignment and more of a lesson and technical challenge. Apple’s cybersecurity measures astounded her.  

An ‘Apple girl’ was born.  

“In my interview, they asked me, ‘Why do you want to work here?' says Acosta, recalling how her attempt to hack into the Apple Home ecosystem gave her newfound respect for company's cybersecurity measures. "I had a good answer."

The journey to Apple 

Acosta knew where she wanted to go, but getting there was another matter. Fortunately for her, there were plenty of motivated, like-minded students who were ready to help.  

Acosta joined two student computing clubs that helped her master the interviewing process. The members practiced presenting projects in mock interviews and utilized online games that simulated the kinds of technical questions that might come up.

Acosta also built up her programming stamina. At ShellHacks, Florida’s largest hackathon hosted annually at the university by the computing organization INIT FIU, she and her teammates in less than two daysbuilt the basics for a project to help visually impaired individuals. Their project used AI models to analyze first-person videos and narrate any obstacles that appear. 

“Not only did we win prizes and make friends, but I got even better at presenting my work,” Acosta says. 

When graduation approached, Acosta was determined to pursue her dream job at Apple.  

“I embraced my fear of failure. I practiced my technical skills and used my interview performance feedback to improve,” she says. 

The interview process was intense—a dozen interviews, including eight technical assessments. But she was prepared, thanks to her comprehensive education at FIU both inside and outside of the classroom. For example, after taking Data Structures, a foundational course in the computer science curriculum, Acosta was set on making her newfound knowledge stick.

"When the class was over, I kept on practicing what I learned until I could recall that knowledge like muscle memory. Almost everything they asked me to do in those interviews required me to recall something from that class, and I was prepared.” 

Now thriving in her role at Apple—and working on the same software that once astonished her in Professor Uluagac’s lab—Acosta reflects on how her education and unique hands-on training continues to influence her work. Today, she works on Apple’s Proximity Systems team, which takes care of various location technologies that run on different accessories. 

"Hardware has changed, tools have changed, but the fundamental challenges we face in software are basically the same that I learned in my FIU curriculum," Acosta says. 

"I'm solving problems at work today with a lot of the coding solutions I learned back at FIU, and with the mentality that was instilled in me: to be solutions oriented and think like an engineer."