Jermiah Robinson

April 3rd, 2024

CYSE 201S – Cybersecurity

Bug Bounty Policies

            The bug bounty policy allows the people to find and discover bugs in various company systems or websites in exchange for prizes and rewards. These policies are put in place for companies to stay up to date with the current cybersecurity threats without having to research extensively just to find it out, and researchers are also looking into bug hunting bounties if it could be a much more cost-effective strategy to have bug bounty policies.

            Bug bounty policies can be more cost effective for businesses who need cybersecurity researchers to stay safe and secure from online threats. Certain companies like Discord even have bug bounty policies and awards users with a custom bug hunting badge as well as a potential to work there. Having these policies provides more money for the business so less is spent on researchers and provides more opportunities for future employees to be considered with adding in bug hunting. However, due to this not being a researched topic due to limited visibility, there is unfortunately no clear pathway to see if a profit can be made instead.

            While bug hunting can provide numerous rewards and benefits to the people, it can also provide much better code infrastructure for the company. Bug hunters highlight numerous vulnerabilities in code that can lead to cyber threats in which the company can then notice and quickly develop a patch before the bug becomes a problematic case. This shows that bug hunting provides companies a much safer approach when managing code and other services.

            In conclusion, bug hunting policies are good for companies and people to learn. It allows freelance IT people to find vulnerabilities in exchange for bounties and to become a potential hire, while companies benefit as well from being able to further secure their infrastructure and stay afloat in the developing cyberspace. As days go by, threats continue to grow but with bug hunting, it allows people from the outside to use these new threats for the benefit of companies.