Hackers Receive $500,000 in One Week via Bugcrowd

Crowdsourced security platform Bugcrowd says it paid over half a million dollars in bug bounty rewards during the last week of October alone.

Leveraging an experienced triage team and collaboration with a large number of hackers, Bugcrowd’s services are used by many enterprises for the managing of bug bounty programs, vulnerability disclosure, and penetration testing.

During its seven-year period of activity, Bugcrowd worked with tens of thousands of whitehat hackers and handed out millions of dollars in bounty rewards, but this was the first time it paid $500,000 in one week alone.

In October, Bugcrowd rewarded over 550 hackers with a total of $1.6 million. The biggest payout to a single bug hunter was of over $40,000. Over 300 Priority 1 (P1) vulnerabilities were discovered during the month.

“Looking back to October 2014, we paid out nearly $30,000 to 85 hackers, and uncovered five P1s. In a matter of a five-year span, we’ve exponentially multiplied payouts, Crowd engagement, and critical findings, and to say we’re excited is an understatement,” the platform says.

Bugcrowd also reveals that it continues to observe payouts increase year-over-year, and this year was no different. In fact, payouts in 2019 registered an increase of more than 80% over 2018’s payouts.

The increase in payouts is expected to continue, along with a larger number of bug bounty programs, especially with a higher number of organizations reaching security maturity.

“For those just starting out, we’re always committed to growing our community and uplifting the skills of our hackers. That’s why we launched Bugcrowd University in 2018, offering free, ungated resources co-curated by our community and security experts to help other hackers hone their skills,” Bugcrowd notes.

Related: Bugcrowd Raises $26 Million to Expand Vulnerability Hunting Business

Related: Pentagon Launches Continuous Bug Bounty Program

Related: U.S. Air Force Announces Third Bug Bounty Program