A team of security researchers won the $1 million prize for the iOS hacking contest held by the Washington, D.C. company Zerodium, according to PC World. The contest challenged participants to penetrate Apple's latest mobile operating system (OS) remotely and Zerodium is currently examining the winning team's work to verify the nature of the exploits used to break into Apple's device.
"The Million Dollar iOS 9 Bug Bounty is tailored for experienced security researchers, reverse engineers, and jailbreak developers, and is an offer made by Zerodium to pay out a total of three million U.S. dollars in rewards for iOS exploits/jailbreaks," the company said.
Apple's OS is one of the most difficult for hackers to penetrate and is very good at fending off viruses and malware.
Zerodium claims to sell threat and exploit data to companies looking to take advantage of smartphone vulnerabilities and they typically sell exploits that have yet to make it into the public eye, according to ZDNet.
Zerodium's intentions for offering the prize make some wary - the company's predecessor, VUPEN, was found to be linked to the National Security Agency, which has become infamous around the world for secret and illegal blanket surveillance - according to RT.
The company is currently also offering rewards for exploiting other targets including Google's Android mobile OS, Mac, Safari, Windows, Chrome, Adobe Flash and various others.
