Apple rewarded five hackers with $ 288,000 for reporting 55 flaws in the US tech giant’s system for operating phones and computers.
Eleven of those defects were described as “serious”, including one that allowed Internet hackers to access users’ photos stored on iCloud. These pirates classify themselves as “white hats”, meaning pirates seeking to uncover and report harmful flaws rather than piracy in order to steal information from users and companies.
Led by Sam Curry, a young man under the age of twenty, says that his team spent three months until it was able to find these faults in the Apple system. “We didn’t have any guarantees about getting a reward, but we said yes and started piracy to the Apple system,” he says.
The company gave the pirates this large amount as part of its incentive to report defects in its products.
Carey confirms that this amount is an initial payment and it is likely that it will exceed 500 thousand dollars when Apple finishes analyzing all the defects discovered and their severity.
He also confirmed that Apple corrected all the vulnerabilities shortly after reporting them.
Apple said in a statement sent to the US “Business Insider” website: “Once we alerted the researchers to the problems they present in detail in their report, we immediately fixed the weaknesses and took steps to prevent issues of this kind in the future.”
They added, “We appreciate our cooperation with security researchers to help keep our users safe and we have given credit to the team for their assistance and we will reward them (within the framework of) the Security Rewards Program.”