What Is Bug Bounty Program?
4 Benefits of Ethical Hacking For Business
Even the most well-thought-out systems are subjected to hacking or other external vulnerabilities. That’s why the issue of security and 24/7 protection deserves special attention to be successful in business. Luckily, there is an optimal and supercharged solution for the owners of software products, it’s called Bug Bounty.
On the threshold of the launch of HackenProof, Hacken decided to tell you more what is bug bounty.
What is Bug Bounty Program?
When developing an application, naturally, you involve a QA engineer who thoroughly checks your product up, down and sideways, testing every aspect of its functionality. However, this specialist doesn’t necessarily possess the special knowledge and skills of cybersecurity testing.
If you’re keenly concerned about your product’s security, the most beneficial solution is to set up a Bug Bounty Program. This unleashes thousands of brainy hackers to search for hidden problems and vulnerabilities.
Typically, bug bounty includes the rules of the program, a list of available resources, a description of the accepted vulnerabilities, and the payment amount. In the classical version, it describes the elements a bug hunter can hack and how much he receives for a particular detected vulnerability. The severity of the bug determines the amount of money that a white hat hacker can get.
This type of enterprise has gained considerable popularity in recent years, has already been recognized as a separate area of employment, and has more and more companies choosing these programs due to their indisputable advantages.
Benefits Of Implementing Bug Bounty
- Economic Factor.
The aggregate cost of setting up Bug Bounty is significantly cheaper than hiring individual experts to conduct cybersecurity audits and penetration tests.
- Non-Stop “Testing For Strength.”
Specialists with different levels of knowledge, tools and from various time zones will attack your company’s resources in 24/7 mode. Eventually, by attracting a high number of participants, you ensure the exceptional coverage of your product testing. Except for moderate Sign-up fees, a customer pays only for original bugs detected. If there is no bug, a company won’t spend all that much.
- Finding Vulnerable Areas.
When ethical hacker finishes an analysis of a company’s system, they provide a clear report on the system’s vulnerable areas. It can be lack of sufficient password encryption, or an employee, who gives out passwords to unauthorized persons. In this way, the company’s leadership can implement more secure procedures to prevent malefactors from penetrating the computer networks as well as to avoid different mistakes made by the staff.
- Security Testing.
Another significant advantage of having ethical hackers on a reward program is to test a company’s security measures. These professionals quite easily help the company determine if the computer security measures are effective enough, which measures have to be updated, and which ones are absolutely inefficient for preventing intrusions into the system.
Success Cases
Many giant world corporations have proved the effectiveness of Bug Bounty Programs. They are Master Card, PayPal, Microsoft, Facebook, Airbnb, and even the US Department of Defense with its federal project “Hack into the Pentagon.”
For instance, Google has paid a hefty $12 million to bug hunters for disclosing the vulnerabilities since 2010. Almost $3 million was paid out only in 2017. The result? Google has not ever had large hacks. This is another argument in favor of the idea that even the most popular and successful software platforms need assesment.
MythBuster ‘All Hackers Are Bad’
The old wive’s tale is all hackers are intruders who gain access to other people’s data with malicious intent. However, instead of this illegal black hacking, Bug Bounty Programs such as HackenProof, are based on an ethical hacking approach.
On HackenProof, white hat hackers are working on behalf of the companies’ owners after initially signing a mutually beneficial contract. This form of hacking is legal and is gaining enormous popularity as many companies willing to pay to detect vulnerabilities via crowdsourced approach.
The primary goal of ethical hackers, unlike QA engineers, is to evaluate company’s cybersecurity. These specialists scan software for weaknesses, test entry points, and create a flexible strategy to best leverage the company’s resources. All these operations are performed in a convenient way allowing the company to thoroughly study errors and fix them as soon as possible with the help of their in-house tech assistants. The result is a drastic increase in security levels.
The Best Defense Is To Attack
Nowadays, the major task for any business is to introduce high-security standards for the confrontation of new black hacking tactics and technologies, multiple security vulnerabilities, and risks of being betrayed. Hacken and ethical hackers with rich experience in cyber attacks can solve these numerous organization-specific security issues.
Any business, organization, or establishment providing an online service, an app or other software product should implement the Bug Bounty Program. Successful testings during the development process don’t always mean that your system is 100% secure. Fortunately, bug bounty provides the best opportunity to protect your company from the tricks of intruders and covers all vulnerable areas with minimum costs and maximum reliability.
