Apple Bug Bounty Update: Top Payout $2 Million, $35 Million Paid to Date

Apple on Friday announced significant updates to its bug bounty program and the company is now offering up to $2 million for complex exploit chains.

Since the launch of its public bug bounty program in 2020, Apple has awarded a total of more than $35 million to over 800 security researchers. Multiple hackers earned $500,000 for their work, Apple said.

The tech giant recently unveiled Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE), an always-on memory-safety protection for iPhones designed to combat sophisticated attacks such as the ones conducted by mercenary spyware vendors.

Apple believes these spyware attacks are the only ones that actually pose a significant threat to its customers and the company now wants to boost the security of its products even further against sophisticated attacks.

It’s doing this by harnessing offensive security talent from outside the company, specifically by significantly increasing bug bounties for vulnerabilities such as the ones ...