Bug bounty programs rewarded 45 million USD worth of security bugs

According to a research, a total of $ 45 million awards were distributed in one year within the scope of ‘bug bounty’ programs.

Thousands of ethical hackers play an important role in the fight against cyber attackers by testing systems around the world, discovering and reporting weaknesses, and helping protect them.

BugBounter, which quickly and effectively meets the need of companies to find vulnerabilities with the independent research community registered on the platform, draws attention to the importance and growth of crowdsourcing support in cyber defense.

Ethical hackers who reported 60,000 valid deficits between May 2019 and April 2020, earned a total of about $ 45 million in prizes, according to a study conducted by Atlas VPN. In other words, they earned an average of $ 980 for each deficit found. The companies that distribute the most awards are in the USA, Russia and England.

Companies in the United States, which distribute 39 million dollars in prizes, make up 87 percent, companies in Russia account for 2 percent with $ 887,236, followed by UK companies that pay $ 559,215.

The crowdsourcing method is increasingly preferred against cyber attackers all over the world, and the awards distributed within this scope find its rightful place because the cost of a critical vulnerability to the company can reach the level of million dollars. Turkey also has a large employment potential in this area. Young people can develop themselves in this area and be included in the system immediately. People who can find the vulnerabilities in the systems can also report the vulnerabilities they find through BugBounter and create income for themselves. The cyber world is constantly evolving and companies need to keep their defenses against cyber attackers in the best possible way. At this point, crowdsourcing offers the fastest, most cost-effective and most effective solution.