14 DAY TRIAL // The Pentagon is launching its largest bug bounty project thus far, this time asking hackers to find flaws in the Air Force's platforms.
"Hack the Air Force" will be open not only to experts in the United States but also from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, or, in other words, what we've come to know as the "Five Eyes."
Running through the HackerOne platform, the program seeks to help the Air Force strengthen its critical assets by using the skills of white hat hackers who will report vulnerabilities for monetary rewards. The amounts hackers will receive have not been specified just yet.
The registration process is open for vetted researchers, although military members and government civilians can participate too, but they will not earn any rewards. Registration for the Hack the Air Force bug bounty program starts on May 15 and the event will take place between May 30 and June 23.
"This is the first time the Air Force has opened our networks to such a broad scrutiny. We have malicious hackers trying to get into our systems every day. It will be nice to have friendly hackers taking a shot and, most importantly, showing us how to improve our cybersecurity and defense posture. The additional participation from our partner nations greatly widens the variety of experience available to find additional unique vulnerabilities," said Peter Kim, Air Force Chief Information Security Officer.
Past successful programs
The Hack the Army bug bounty program was quite successful. 371 people registered for the program and submitted 416 vulnerability reports. 118 of them were classified as unique and actionable. White hats earned about $100,000.
The Hack the Pentagon program was also quite successful, with 138 valid submissions being sent. Then, they paid hackers a bit less.
This is a good move for the Air Force. The largest tech companies in the world each have bug bounty programs launched as they try to find problems with their systems in order to fix any issues that may occur.