Why tech firms pay hackers to hack them

Companies spend big money to identify flaws, but does this make for a safer internet?

Imagine getting $1m for finding a security weakness in a mobile operating system. That's what happened to an anonymous team of hackers who found a way to hack through Apple's iOS to score the sizeable prize, security startup Zerodium announced this month.

Zerodium launched the challenge in September, saying it would pay seven figures to a team able to find a way to take over iPhones and iPads running the latest versions of iOS just by tricking it into visiting the wrong web page or opening a text message.

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