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Apple Offers Record 'Bounty' to Researchers Who Find iPhone Security Flaws

Reuters

   LAS VEGAS - Apple Inc. is offeringcybersecurity researchers up to $1
   million to detect flaws iniPhones, the largest reward offered by a
   company to defendagainst hackers, at a time of rising concern
   aboutgovernmentsbreaking into the mobile devices of dissidents,
   journalists andhuman rights advocates.

   Unlike other technology providers, Apple previously offeredrewards only
   to invited researchers who tried to find flaws inits phones and cloud
   backups.

   At the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas onThursday,
   the company said it would open the process to allresearchers, add Mac
   software and other targets, and offer arange of rewards, called
   "bounties," for the most significantfindings.

   The $1 million prize would apply only to remote access tothe iPhone
   kernel, without any action from the phone's user.

   Apple's previous highest bounty was $200,000 for friendlyreports of
   bugs that can then be fixed with software updates, keeping them from
   being exposed to criminals or spies.

   Government contractors and brokers have paid as much as $2million for
   the most effective hacking techniques to obtaininformation from
   devices. Apple's new bounties, however, are inthe same range as some
   published prices from contractors.

   Apple is taking other steps to make research easier,including offering
   a modified phone that has some securitymeasures disabled.

   A number ofprivate companies, such as Israel's NSO Group,sell hacking
   capabilities to governments to target theircritics. One such attack was
   made against a friend of WashingtonPost columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a
   critic of the Saudi Arabiangovernment, who was killed inside the Saudi
   Consulate inIstanbul in October 2018.

   A principal component of such breaches is programs thattake advantage
   of otherwise unknown flaws in the phones, theirsoftware or installed
   applications.

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