In the face of new legal authorizations by the United States government, Apple has applied for a patent to protect its products from hacks.

Apple's iPad and iPhone are just two of the products that would be protected under a new system developed to find and disable uses not allowed by Apple, such as jailbreaking Apple's popular electronic devices. Jailbreaking, which allows users to access unapproved additions, extensions and themes for their devices and use mobile carriers that Apple does not support, has become popular as more and more Apple devices have reached the market.

Apple is acting to increase control over its products despite the fact that the United States government has granted legal authorization to jailbreaking for what it calls "educational purposes." The company's current policy is to automatically revoke warranties on iPhones that have been jailbroken or otherwise hacked.

The company claims that the new system would protect consumers from theft and contains elements that would shield users from theft of sensitive information. The methods described in the patent would protect credit card numbers and passwords, among other information, that users store on the devices in case of theft. Once Apple learned of the theft of a device, sensitive data would be erased from the phone itself after being sent to a remote server operated by Apple.

Apple's attempts to prevent its products from being hacked come from another element of the system that would detect anomalies in the iPhone's operation, including removal of SIM cards, unlocking, and jumps in memory usage that might come from a hacking program. After identifying the anomaly, Apple could use the same system to erase personal information from the unit in question and instruct its carrier to shut it down.

Apple applied for the patent in February, though it was only published last week.