Apple Relents, Bug Hunters Invited To Exclusive Conference

Many in the tech industry have been paying so-called bug hunters for years to help improve security in their respective products and services by rooting out vulnerabilities. Apple was one of the rare exceptions, but it seems the maker of the iPhone finally had to relent. Now, it’s inviting hackers to an exclusive event to discuss the arrangements.

The invitation by Apple was an unexpected one, Macworld reports, as the company is notorious for its secrecy. The company usually guards its security practices and even famously rebuffed the U.S. government from accessing its systems. However, even with the move by Apple to finally employee bug hunters, the company still retains some of its hesitance to completely rely on outsiders as these arrangements are usually open invitation.

The hackers who were invited to the conference will be paid anywhere from $25,000 to $200,000, depending on how they perform or what vulnerabilities they find, as well as which areas they excelled at. These details were revealed by Ivan Krstić, the head of security engineering and architecture at Apple. The announcement was made during the Black Hat security research conference, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Krstić’s appearance at the event itself is a momentous affair, Tech Crunch notes, as Apple has not sent a representative to speak at Black Hat in over four years. Securosis CEO Rich Mogull indicated that part of the reason for this is the company’s tumultuous relationship with security researchers.

“Apple historically had a rough relationship with researchers,” Mogul said. “Over the last 10 years, that has changed a lot and become more positive.”

Mogull did point out that the hackers and bug hunters that Apple is inviting would likely be made up of people who are interested in more than just a payout as security experts can get far more lucrative deals elsewhere. So the bug hunters that will be participating will likely be more interested in making an impact than anything else.