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Apple will pay you $100,000 if you find a bug in iCloud

The tech giant is ready to reward researchers with bug bounties for finding problems in its system.

Shelby Brown Editor II
Shelby Brown (she/her/hers) is an editor for CNET's services team. She covers tips and tricks for apps, operating systems and devices, as well as mobile gaming and Apple Arcade news. Shelby also oversees Tech Tips coverage. Before joining CNET, she covered app news for Download.com and served as a freelancer for Louisville.com.
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  • She received the Renau Writing Scholarship in 2016 from the University of Louisville's communication department.
Shelby Brown
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Apple is going to shell out the big bucks. 

Angela Lang/CNET

Apple is opening its bug bounty program to the latest publicly available versions of iOS , iPadOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS. Researchers who find and clearly report issues to Apple Product Security will get a large payout, depending on the bug discovered. 

In a post on its developer page Thursday, Apple outlined the bounty categories which include bugs in the iCloud, device attacks via physical access, network attacks with user interaction and more. The maximum payouts range from $100,000 to $1 million. 

Earlier this year, Apple offered special iPhones specifically for security researchers at Black Hat, a cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas earlier this year. Apple launched its security bounty program in 2016 and offered researchers up to $200,000 to find and report vulnerabilities in the system. 

Google and Facebook have also offered rewards for researchers and hackers to put their security practices under the microscope over the past year. Other heavy-duty users of computers, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Chrysler and United Airlines have also had bug bounties. 

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