Hacking is not always something to be scared of. It is no longer only associated with immoral activities, and it can be a contribution for good with all morals and ethics intact. This field has evolved wholesomely with functional areas of improved and ethical hacking activities. “Hacker” and “hacking practices” have been misrepresented and often misunderstood by many cyber criminals or ordinary people.
However, now people are getting to know more about these concepts, making them realize that not all hackers intend to harm others or participate in causing widespread data breaches to destroy or damage the company’s image. Some hackers, called white hackers, even intend to help companies in bug bounties – which involve paid hackers checking and making the company’s cybersecurity systems strong to prepare themselves to face any unfortunate hacking event or any existing threats or bugs in the system. Over the past few years, bug bounties have become extremely popular, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is rich with moral hijackers. They hack, report, and ultimately assist the company under direct supervision for every security question that might occur.
But, how do you participate in such good hacking and get the knowledge of monetizing sources associated with it? The answer to all your questions is bug bounty programs, and know all about them through this article.
What is a Bug Bounty, and How Does Monetization Occur?
The main motive of the Bug Bounties is to prevent unethical hackers from disrupting the company’s programs with confidential information, which might harm the company’s overall image and client base. With each white hacker’s disclosure, most modern bug bounty programs pay with many mediums, especially cash prizes, ranging from hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some reward you with points for sending risk reports, and you can convert these points into cash.
The bug bounty programs allow cyber hackers to obtain compensation by reporting bugs popularly known as potential threats and exploitation of the organization’s computer hardware, firmware, and software, which helps companies detect and analyze the risk factor involved in their critical resources.
How to Participate in Bug Bounty Programs?
The first thing you need to focus on is to make sure you want to go for public or private bug bounty programs. The benefit of public platforms is that they are available to anyone who intends to participate in white hacking. At the same time, private platforms are only for invited hackers with their prior experiences and skills. Joining a bug bounty platform is probably the easiest way to get the maximum benefits, as they have been tested and safe. Some platforms host-specific bug bounty programs to benefit participants, where security researchers or white hackers submit results and are paid for their work by the platform. Some of the most popular and user-friendly bug bounty platforms are listed below:
- ExpressVPN’s Bug Bounty: Features one of the highest bounties offered on Bugcrowd. This program covers the perfect tone of their services by keeping track of all the white hackers to check the company’s cyber security programs and systems.
- HackerOne Bug Bounty Program: They help secure and test the security system and applications of an organization’s approach to achieving the best and continuous results of risk reports. They offer the users with both private and public bug bounty programs.
- GitHub bug bounty program: The GitHub bug bounty program is helping hundreds of security researchers earn points for their exposure to vulnerability depending on the severity of the error. In this program, they are advised and allowed to participate only when they respect the integrity of user data to avoid damage to available services, brand image, or information of the organization.
Conclusion:
Seeing the rapid graph at which cybercrimes and attacks are rising around the globe, you can analyze the need for excellent and ethical hackers or say rays of sunshine in the dark hacking world who will help the organizations with their skills now more than ever. So, if you are a hacking enthusiast and want to test and improve your skills and gain some earnings through the process, then invest your time, talent, and energy in participating in the best bug bounty programs.