Zerodium Boosts Payouts for Zero Day Exploits to US$2 Million

January 14, 2019

The Hacker News reported that Zerodium will pay up to $2 million for an iPhone zero day exploit. The idea is that the market for iPhone hacks is robust even if Apple is struggling to hits its internal sales targets. The write up states:

Zerodium—a startup by the infamous French-based company Vupen that buys and sells zero-day exploits to government agencies around the world—said it would now pay up to $2 million for remote iOS jailbreaks and $1 million for exploits that target secure messaging apps.

The big payout is for a remote hack which jailbreaks an iPhone. The idea is that an entity can access an iPhone remotely and perform actions on that iPhone with having direct physical access to the device. The approach is known as a “zero click” exploit; that is, no user interaction required.

The company is also offering a payout of $1 million for WhatsApp exploits.

The reason? Hacker News explains:

The hike in the price is in line with demand and the tougher security of the latest operating systems and messaging apps, as well as to attract more researchers, hackers and bug hunters to seek complex exploit chains.

DarkCyber anticipates more price increases as bad actors shift to encrypted messaging for certain types of communications and transactions.

Stephen E Arnold, January 14, 2019

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