Win Big With Bug Bounty - The hunt for Bug, Reward and Recognition program
- Cybersecurity
Digitally connected cyber universe is coded with myriad of programming languages and frameworks ranging from a static web page to a web of IoTs and super computers. Gauging the complexity of all the connected cyber spaces, one can imagine the presence of loopholes in the system. Security mechanism not in place, design flaws, insecure coding, security misconfiguration and what not? The cybersecurity industry comes into play here - the guardian of cyber space. One thing in cybersecurity industry that stands out from the other rest is Bug Bounty programs. Perhaps this is the only industry that rewards the attacker who broke into their system.
What is bug bounty?
A bug bounty program is an arrangement offered by many websites, organizations, and software developers whereby individuals are recognized and compensated for reporting bugs, particularly those related to security vulnerabilities. Reward or bounties paid vary from $50 -$10,00,000 depending on the severity and exploitability of the bugs reported. It is a sector where you can put your skill set to test in a real-world environment and at the same time get rewarded in a form of “bounties” and recognised in a “Hall of Fame”.
To be eligible to receive bounties and shortlisted in a Hall of Fame:
- The bug reported should not be a duplicate, meaning it should not have been reported earlier.
- The report should contain step-by-step process of vulnerability findings and exploitation which is termed as reproduction steps if required and short demonstration video may be enclosed known as POC(Proof-of-Concept).
- Measuring the severity depends on the level of exploitation and the amount of critical information that can be compromised. More severe the vulnerability, higher the amount of bounties. For e.g., Apple Security Bounty offers upto $1 million bounty for various security issues in iCloud and its smartphones.
The competition among bounty hunters to discover security vulnerabilities as fast as possible makes Bug Bounty hunting very dynamic.
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Written by NIELIT KOHIMA