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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Last week Apple made its belated entrance into the bug bounty market, announcing a top award of $200,000 for major flaws in iOS, but Cook & Co have been comprehensively outbid.

On Tuesday, exploit trading firm Exodus Intelligence said it is willing to pay $500,000 for a major flaw in iOS 9.3 and above – and the exploit to use it. Researchers can either take a lump sum or accept a smaller sum and quarterly payments until the exploit is found, which the company's founder told The Reg could add up to even more.

"The majority of our clients are defensive vendors, penetration testers, and red/blue teams," said Logan Brown, president of Exodus.

Apple exploits get the highest reward, reflective of their scarcity. Microsoft and Google's bug bounty programs will also need to up their rewards to match Exodus's prices.

[...] Security experts are worried that the hoarding of serious flaws will have a deleterious effect on overall security for everyone. Exodus attempted to reassure people on this front by beginning a vulnerability disclosure process back in February, but it only discloses after it has extracted the "maximum value for our customers."

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