https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/01/zeroday-exploit-prices-continue-to-soar-especially-for-ios-and-messaging-apps/
By Dan Goodin
Ars Technica
1/7/2019
The prices for James Bond-style hacks keep growing, especially for those
that hijack iPhones and secure messaging apps. It's the latest sign that
governments and police forces around the world are as eager as ever to
exploit software that's becoming ever more difficult to compromise.
On Monday, market-leading exploit broker Zerodium said it would pay up to
$2 million for zero-click jailbreaks of Apple's iOS, $1.5 million for
one-click iOS jailbreaks, and $1 million for exploits that take over
secure messaging apps WhatsApp and iMessage. Previously, Zerodium was
offering $1.5 million, $1 million, and $500,000 for the same types of
exploits respectively. The steeper prices indicate not only that the
demand for these exploits continues to grow, but also that reliably
compromising these targets is becoming increasingly hard.
"I think one conclusion is that targets are getting harder to exploit,"
Patrick Wardle, a former hacker for the National Security Agency and now a
cofounder of Digital Security, told Ars. "But also another is that there
is now a higher demand for exploits." He continued:
[...]
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