Russian company Operation Zero, which specializes in selling cyber exploits, has announced its willingness to pay up to $4 million for vulnerabilities in Telegram. This is one of the largest known bounties for hacking the popular messenger.
Russian company Operation Zero, which specializes in selling cyber exploits, has announced its willingness to pay up to $4 million for vulnerabilities in Telegram. This is one of the largest known bounties for hacking the popular messenger.
According to TechCrunh , a company based in the aggressor country of Russia is engaged in the purchase of zero-day vulnerabilities — that is, bugs unknown to the manufacturer that allow unauthorized access to software. Operation Zero is known to work with state customers, including Russian government agencies, which increases concerns about the possible use of these vulnerabilities for surveillance and cyberattacks.
Operation Zero stated that it is ready to purchase exploits for various platforms, including: Android versions of Telegram, iOS versions of Telegram, Telegram for Windows and macOS.
It is noted that the main goal is to find vulnerabilities that allow intercepting correspondence, remotely executing code, or gaining control over user accounts. Operation Zero has previously offered bounties for vulnerabilities in iOS, Android, Windows, and other platforms, but the price of $4 million for Telegram is unprecedented.
Telegram is one of the most popular messengers in the world, in particular, the creator of the messenger, Pavel Durov, reported 1 billion active users. Russian special services use Telegram to recruit Ukrainians to carry out terrorist acts, which, unfortunately, in most cases end with the elimination of the perpetrators.
