Cybersecurity
Homeland Security Offers Hackers a Bounty to Find Bugs
- DHS secretary unveiled ‘bug bounty’ at Bloomberg conference
- Such programs pay hackers to find vulnerabilities in networks
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a new program Tuesday in which the agency will pay outside hackers to find vulnerabilities in its computer systems, a type of incentive popular in the cybersecurity industry that is known as a “bug bounty.”
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas unveiled his agency’s “Hack DHS” program at the Bloomberg Technology Summit. Unlike many bug bounties, which are open to anyone, DHS said in a statement that its program would include only “vetted cybersecurity researchers who have been invited to access select external DHS systems.” Any vulnerabilities they find would then be fixed, and the researchers would be rewarded with financial prizes.