Hackers who know about zero-day flaws in Windows, iPhone, Android or Mac can earn up to $3 million if they share the exploit with Crowdfense, a startup company in Dubai, which is willing to pay millions for this purpose.
Crowdfense essentially wants to buy zero-day exploits from hackers and then deliver them to government agencies trying to hack devices or software that could hide valuable data for terrorist investigations.
"When I think of government services, I don't think of the military part, but the political part that acts against crime and terrorism," said Crowdfense director Andrea Zapparoli Manzoni.
The company has not revealed the names of the governments it is collaborating with and, according to its statements, it will not reveal the names of the hackers who will help it in its mission.
For information, Crowdfense has a budget of $10 million for purchasing zero-day exploits and promises full transparency.
Crowdfense will prove to be a great help to the United States government, which has repeatedly asked for support from technology companies to track down criminals and terrorists. A typical example is the case of the San Bernardino shooter, whose government asked Apple to hack iPhone , but it refused. This attitude of the giant resulted in the FBI turning to a third-party company for help.
Recently, the GrayKey device caught the eye, as it can bypass the passcode of any iPhone – even models running the latest version of iOS – by exploiting a zero-day flaw in the operating system that Apple has not yet identified.
