Apple Inc on Thursday night announced that it will start giving out up to $200,000 to hackers who find bugs in its products. The security flaws eligible for the "bug bounties" include $25,000 for bugs in Apple's digital compartments and customers' information, $50,000 for flaws that compromise iCloud accounts and $200,000 for serious vulnerabilities in its firmware, which is the permanent software programmed into devices, The New York Times reported.

Apple's move to get on the bug bounty bandwagon comes late when compared with other tech giants such as Google and Microsoft. It had faced criticism earlier for not rewarding outside hackers for reporting vulnerabilities.

Making the announcement at the Black Hat hacking conference, Apple also offered to match the amount if hackers donated their rewards to charity. Head of Security Engineering and Architecture of Apple Inc Ivan Krstic said, "We want to reward the people, and frankly, the creativity it takes to find bugs in these categories."

Silicon Valley firms offer bounties to report such flaws as an attempt to ensure that they act as incentives to deter spy organisations or other groups from using the vulnerabilities to their advantage. Computer security experts, including government representatives, tech executives and hackers, gather at the annual Black Hat conference, the 19th run of which was held in Las Vegas.