Apple set to pay out to hackers who expose vulnerabilities

Hackers who report security flaws in Apple's systems could now receive a bounty of up to $200,000 from the US tech giant.

Apple joins various technology firms which are employing the practice, such as Microsoft, Google and Facebook. Millions of dollars in so-called "bug bounties" have been paid out in recent years.

In an effort to bolster their security against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks and repair holes within their digital infrastructure, many tech giants have started bug bounty programmes in recent years to find holes before they are potentially exploited and wreak havoc.

The company's head of security engineering and architecture Ivan Kristic revealed the news at a security conference at the Black Hat in Las Vegas.

"It’s getting increasingly difficult to find some of those most critical types of security vulnerabilities," Kristic said. "The Apple security-bounty program is going to reward researchers who actually share critical vulnerabilities with Apple."

It said it would pay out as much as $200,000 for the most serious breaches of security.

“We believe that these payment amounts are commensurate with the level of difficulty in attacking some of these systems,” Mr. Krstic added.

As well as technology companies, other industries are said to be using the approach also, including automakers such as Tesla and General Motors.