Zerodium Offers $1 Million Reward To Decimate iOS 9 Security Protocols
Zerodium, a new cybersecurity firm that pays independent researchers for their zero-day discoveries, is offering a big reward to anyone who creates an untethered, browser-based jailbreak for iOS 9. By "big" we're talking seven figures -- $1 million dollars, which it will pay out to the first three people or teams who can provide a remote jailbreak for the latest version of Apple's mobile software.
"Apple iOS, like all operating system, is often affected by critical security vulnerabilities, however due to the increasing number of security improvements and the effectiveness of exploit mitigations in place, Apple's iOS is currently the most secure mobile OS. But don't be fooled, secure does not mean unbreakable, it just means that iOS has currently the highest cost and complexity of vulnerability exploitation and here's where the Million Dollar iOS 9 Bug Bounty comes into play," Zerodium says.
According to Wired, Zerodium founder Chaouki Bekrar has an extensive history in the zero-day industry. Not only does he run Zerodium, he also created Vupen, a French hacking firm that develops hacks for popular software and then sells them to government agencies around the globe.
He's taking a similar approach with the Million Dollar iOS 9 Bug Bounty challenge. To be eligible for the million dollar reward, the exploit in question can't be published to the public or reported to Apple. While Zerodium doesn't come right out and say it, the assumption is that it plans to sell iOS 9 exploits to customers.
The program is open until October 31, 2015 at 6PM EST.
"Apple iOS, like all operating system, is often affected by critical security vulnerabilities, however due to the increasing number of security improvements and the effectiveness of exploit mitigations in place, Apple's iOS is currently the most secure mobile OS. But don't be fooled, secure does not mean unbreakable, it just means that iOS has currently the highest cost and complexity of vulnerability exploitation and here's where the Million Dollar iOS 9 Bug Bounty comes into play," Zerodium says.
According to Wired, Zerodium founder Chaouki Bekrar has an extensive history in the zero-day industry. Not only does he run Zerodium, he also created Vupen, a French hacking firm that develops hacks for popular software and then sells them to government agencies around the globe.
He's taking a similar approach with the Million Dollar iOS 9 Bug Bounty challenge. To be eligible for the million dollar reward, the exploit in question can't be published to the public or reported to Apple. While Zerodium doesn't come right out and say it, the assumption is that it plans to sell iOS 9 exploits to customers.
The program is open until October 31, 2015 at 6PM EST.
