Apple is putting a lot of stock into the privacy and security of Apple Intelligence. Thus, it’s expanding its bug bounty program. Apple is offering payouts upwards of $1 million USD (around $1.3 million CAD). Payouts go to anyone who finds vulnerabilities within the Private Cloud Compute (PCC) system.
The Cupertino company is often lauding Apple Intelligence for its ability to handle on-device AI-powered features. Apple Intelligence is built to run most generative and contextual AI commands across iPhones, Macs, etc., without being facilitated on external servers. However, for more intensive or difficult requests, Apple is leveraging PCC servers, built with Apple Silicon and a new OS.
For these requests, Apple Intelligence will open up its on-device framework. Apple Intelligence’s on-device security appears to be fairly ironclad, as Apple doesn’t send any information or contextual requests to its services. However, this naturally brings up the concern of what happens to requests that hit the PCC. How secure are these? To identify any glaring issues within the PCC system, Apple’s bug bounty program is now encouraging people to find any discrepancies within server-based operations.
Security researchers access the security guide highlighting the ins and outs of the PCC. Additionally, researchers are provided with a ‘Virtual Research Environment‘ that allows a security analysis of PCC on a Mac (provided you have a device running Apple Silicon and 16GB of RAM with macOS Sequoia 15.1 Developer Preview). Finally, Apple provides source code on GitHub for “certain key components of PCC that help to implement its security and privacy requirements.”
Rewards go to anyone who pokes holes in PCC and provides Apple with legitimate feedback on privacy and security concerns. Apple is offering between $50,000 USD (around $69,000 CAD) to $1 million USD for discoveries across various categories. Apple is also evaluating security issues that may have “a significant impact to PCC.”
With an expected launch next week, Apple Intelligence will be available worldwide with the public introduction of iOS 18.1.
Source: The Verge
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