Apple is set to reward cyber security professionals who find vulnerabilities in its iPhones and other products, becoming the latest technology company to adopt a so called bug bounty programme.

Apple, which was earlier this year embroiled in a battle with the FBI over encryption, said at the Black Hat cyber security conference in Las Vegas it would invite a group of security researchers to find flaws in its software, paying up to $200,000, reports Financial Times.

The method, used by many of the big technology players including Google, Microsoft and Facebook, is intended to encourage technology professionals to report the flaws to the company directly so they can be fixed, before a hacker gets to them.

According to New York Times, Apple announced a list of vulnerabilities that would generate the biggest pay outs, including $25,000 for getting through the company’s digital compartments and into its customer data, and $50,000 to hack into iCloud data.

It will pay $200,000 for critical vulnerabilities in Apple’s firmware, which is said to be higher than rivals pay out.

“We want to reward the people, and frankly the creativity it takes to find bugs in these categories,” said Apple’s head of security engineering and architecture Ivan Krstic at the event.

Until now, Apple has stayed away from the practice of offering financial reward to those that find flaws in its system, but this strategy came to the fore earlier this year.

The FBI reportedly paid unidentified hackers at least $1.35 million to access an iPhone used by a gunman involved in a terrorist incident earlier this year in California, after Apple refused to hack the device itself.