Just how secure is the fingerprint scanner touch identification function on Apple’s new iPhone 5S?

According to an article from Discovery News, that’s precisely the question that tech security specialists Nick Depetrillo and Robert David Graham are trying to answer. The two experts kicked off a website earlier this week to serve as a “status” page of sorts for whether or not Apple’s new Touch ID function has been hacked yet. Currently, the website merely boasts a big, black, bold “NO!”, but that won’t deter aspiring hackers from trying to crack the code on Apple’s latest security innovation.

Thanks to Depetrillo and Graham’s website, the motivation to crack the code on Apple’s Touch ID is growing. So far, members from around the hacking community have flocked to the website to add dollar amounts, bottles of alcohol, and bitcoin awards to a growing bounty. Now, whoever first manages to “reliably and repeatedly break into an iPhone 5S by lifting prints” will not only earn the adoration of the hunting community on message boards and chat rooms scattered around the dark corners of the web, but that person will also be able to collect the bounty from Depetrillo and Graham’s website campaign. The grand prize? $16,000 and counting.

How the touch ID safeguard will be cracked, of course, remains to be seen. Depetrillo and Graham have given examples of past fingerprint scanners which have been hoodwinked by fingerprints lifted from beer mugs or gummy bears. However, Graham at least believes that Apple’s fingerprint scanning device will be a bit harder to crack, hence the growing bounty and the good deal of attention that Apple’s new device is getting from around the hacking community.

“We are arguing that it is a lot harder,” Graham said to ABC News last week. “We are offering money, betting that it is going to be hard. We are betting that no one tomorrow is going to grab a gummy bear and get through.”

“One of the principals in the security community is you can’t trust something unless there is a bounty for it,” he added.

Thus far, Apple has made no statements on the matter and has not offered a bounty of its own. Regardless, the company, whose stock got a nice boost from Friday’s busy sales day, is very likely watching with everyone else to see if some innovative computer whiz can figure out a way past its newfangled security system.

In the meantime, you can watch the progress of the hack at Depetrello and Graham’s website or via the Twitter hastag, #istouchidhackedyet.