Apple announced a significant overhaul of its Security Bounty program, doubling the maximum reward for discovering critical security vulnerabilities to $2 million. The company described this as a "major evolution" of the program, which has already paid out over $35 million to security researchers. The highest payout is reserved for identifying exploit chains similar to those used in sophisticated spyware attacks. Payouts for other categories were also substantially increased, such as a $1 million reward for demonstrating unauthorized access to iCloud. Apple stated that with additional bonuses, particularly for bypassing Lockdown Mode, the total payout could potentially exceed $5 million. This move is seen as a way for Apple to enhance the security of its products against sophisticated threats by incentivizing the global security research community.