Participating in the 2019 Black Hat security conference held in Las Vegas, Apple announced probably the biggest cash reward for reporting a security issue in software delivered to iPhone phones.

Of course, in order to grant the reward it is necessary to meet strict criteria, the vulnerability must be of the category of critical importance for the security of the devices.

In addition, Apple is tracking a particular category of attacks, in which the core of the iOS operating system is compromised to provide unrestricted access to the device using methods that do not involve any direct action by the user.

Apple is not in the first attempt of this kind, but previous campaigns had much smaller rewards, which did not exceed 200,000 for reporting the worst problems.

This time, company officials go even further, providing reputable security experts with modified iPhone kits, with some of the iOS security systems already deactivated, in order to allow easier investigation of difficult bugs. to be tested under normal conditions of use.

One possible explanation for Apple’s insistence on unlocking exploits that allow infiltration of iOS devices is the growing threat coming from highly experienced hackers groups, backed by state actors to develop means to facilitate spying campaigns. and mass monitoring of iOS device users.