To boost the research and development on the security of iPhones, Apple Inc. has announced a bounty of $1 million to the hackers who can hack into their devices. The initiative will help the device manufacturers find the clues to the loopholes in their security.
Apple announced the biggest ever payout by the company, in Las Vegas recently, during the annual Black Hat hacker convention. The iPhone manufacturing company had been taking public help to perfect its security for years. The company in 2016 rewarded a bounty of $200,000 to the hackers to find out bugs in the iOS that would allow hackers to access the data in the devices.
The fivefold increase in the bug bounty programme this year focuses on finding vulnerable bugs in all the Apple platforms such as iOS, iCloud, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS. The programme is not restricted to hackers but to the public as well.
Apple has put forward some terms and conditions to redeem the top prize which requires specific hacks that show the loophole to enter the platform without distorting the administrative file and verification system. The hackers, in turn, will also have to explain the manufacturers the process of breaking into the core without administrative permissions and without having the device intact to their system.
According to the Mashable reports, people capable of bypassing iPhone's lock screen while having physical access to the device will be rewarded $100,000 and those who can execute a kernel code through an installed app will be paid off $150,000 as a reward. Additional rewards include a 50 percent bonus for discovering bugs in the prototypes.
iPhone researchers also have plans of providing hackers jailbroken devices to bring out a concentrated number of vulnerabilities from the platform and increase the pace of the programme, reported Forbes.
Recently, Apple has been going forward with its ad campaign through social media and youtube, helping users understand the value of security and privacy.
