Apple is offering $1MILLION to anyone who is able to hack an iPhone in bold test of their security systems
- The tech giant’s ‘bug bounty’ program has been expanded to challenge hackers to break into an iPhone remotely
- Apple head of security Ivan Krstić announced major changes to the program on stage at the ‘Black Hat’ information security conference in Las Vegas
- The company also will be giving away special iPhones to security researchers to look for flaws and fix them ahead of a new product launch
Apple is giving away $1million to the hacker who can break the tech giant’s security protections to break into an iPhone remotely.
It is a significant increase in reward from the $200,000 ‘bounty program’ reward Apple has run since 2016 to incentivize hackers to work with the company, rather than target it and it’s users.
Hackers will have a chance at winning the bigger payout starting this fall, Ivan Krstić, Apple’s head of security, announced at the Black Hat technology security conference in Las Vegas Thursday, CNET reports.
Ivan Krstić, Apple’s head of security (above) says the company will offer $1 millon to the hacker who can break into an iPhone starting this fall
Apple CEO Tim Cook has made protecting privacy a top priority. ‘This is not something that we just started last week, when we saw something happening. We’ve been doing this for years’
With security breaches increasingly on the rise, Apple CEO Tim Cook has called privacy a ‘human right,’ and made it clear that Apple is serious about not collecting personal information and keeping its 2 billion customers around the globe safe from hackers.
‘This is not something that we just started last week, when we saw something happening. We’ve been doing this for years,’ he told MSNBC.
Just last month, a hacker accessed the personal information of 106 million Capital One credit card holders or credit card applicants in the U.S. and Canada, in the latest massive data breach at a large company.
Apple isn’t alone on offering rewards to hackers, although other companies have offered far less. Rival Google in July announced it was offering $30,000 to people who could find flaws in its Chrome browser, CNET reports.
Apple plan to distribute a limited number of easy-to-hack iPhones starting next year to anyone who can discover bugs in the devices
Krstić also said that a limited number of easy-to-hack iPhones will be distributed next year to anyone who can discover bugs in the devices.
Apple wants to go easy on their distribution, to help prevent hackers from turning around and selling any vulnerabilities to hackers offering a higher price than Apple.
‘We want to attract exceptional researchers who have been focused on other platforms,’ Krstic said.