After Apple refused to create a back door to its iPhone security protocols, despite Obama FBI demands, the US government set itself to finding ways to break those security protocols.

Apple is striking back by strengthening the iPhone, and hiring experts in the field to do it.

Jon Callas was a co-founder and CTO of Silent Circle, a firm that makes cryptography tools. Their email service was so secure that they felt threatened by the US Government and shut it down. Jon Callas now works for Apple.

Callas is likely to work on iOS and Mac desktop security, in order to make it harder for the US Government to intrude in the privacy of all iPhone users. It’s hard to tell if the plan is to make it impossible for future back doors to be installed, or what. Maybe they plan to fix the bugs that let the government get around the security this time.

Regardless, it’s striking to see how Apple is doing this. They’re obviously best known for making high priced hardware and integrated software. But they’re working very hard to become known for having the most secure mobile platform around. Governments have the keys to Blackberry. Governments have an in with Google. Apple wants to be thought of differently.