Facebook and Google this week announced the decision to postpone this year’s BountyCon bug hunting conference due to health risks.
The second edition of the event was planned for April 4-5, 2020, in Singapore, mainly targeting security researchers in the APAC region, but expecting attendees from all around the world.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we’ve decided to postpone BountyCon due to evolving public health risks related to coronavirus. While this was a difficult decision to make, our priority is the health and safety of our attendees,” Facebook says.
The company also notes that it is currently waiting to see how the situation evolves before providing information on when the conference would be held.
However, the social platform did say that it has “extended the deadline for university students to apply to attend BountyCon to August 31, 2020.”
The extended deadline suggests that the conference might be pushed all the way back to the fall of 2020.
The first BountyCon conference was held in March last year and resulted in $120,000 being awarded in bounty payouts, for 40 valid bug submissions.
Singapore is the home city for SecurityWeek’s 2020 Singapore ICS Cyber Security Conference, an event dedicated to serving critical infrastructure and industrial internet stakeholders in the APAC region.
Related: Facebook, Google Announce 2020 Asia-Pacific Bug Hunting Conference
Related: DEF CON China Conference Postponed Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
