I would be much more happy if the amount paid were maybe five times as much.
I wonder how much the bad guys pay for this kind of information. I would guess a lot more than $51,500!
Good thing these guys were good guys. But there are a lot of bad guys out there who will want a much bigger reward, or they will go elsewhere.
And maybe Apple covertly, reluctantly is OK with that. A good way to have your cake and eat it too regarding China, for example.
Publicly, Apple is relentless and uncompromising in protecting user security and privacy from and within China, even though China demands the right to surveil devices . Go, Apple!
Privately, “well, you know, there may be these exploits out there that the Ministry of state security can use to penetrate our devices at will, but publicly that’s just speculation. After all, we offer thousands of dollars for critical exploits. Thousands! I’m sure no intelligence service would offer more than that to find out what dissidents and counterrevolutionaries are doing around the world. Thousands!!”
And honestly, maybe if there were no easy professional-level exploits, Apple isn’t even allowed to sell in China. Ugh.