> pretty sure it he could have gotten more tax free on the black market.
Not necessarily. On slide 72 of this presentation, it says sandbox escape or bypass for Chrome is worth up to $200000:
https://nocomplexity.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/bluehat2...
(I originally found this presentation on github[1], but github seems down right now[2].)
[1] https://github.com/mdowd79/presentations/blob/main/bluehat20...
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/github/comments/1mnlgc5/is_github_d...
Mossad and its subsidiaries like NSO pay $1M
https://citizenlab.ca/2016/08/million-dollar-dissident-iphon...
NSO is one of dozens of firms that do this work; people are just fixated on NSO because it's the one broker/enablement firm they've actually heard of. The fact that you know who you are should make you less confident in their ability, not more.