In a first, Uber has invited hackers to find loopholes in its code and will be awarding up to $10,000 as prize money in the bug bounty program.
Uber will be initiating its first big bounty program for hackers in May this year. The cab company wants hackers to try and fing bugs in its code that could potentially expose driver & rider information. Uber says that small bugs will get hackers a few thousand dollars while pointing out a larger security risk could earn them upto $10,000.
Uber has placed a deadline of 90 days post May 1 for "security researchers" to comb through and find flaws in its system. In a recent press statement, Uber said, "Last year we launched a private, beta bug bounty program for over 200 security researchers. They found nearly 100 bugs — all of which have been fixed, helping to improve security at Uber. So today we’re excited to announce our official bug bounty program."
The company has also announced a "first of its kind loyalty reward program that is designed to encourage members of the security community to dig deep, helping Uber to deal with even the most subtle bugs."
Commenting on the announcement, Uber's Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan said, "Even with a team of highly-qualified and well trained security experts, you need to be constantly on the look-out for ways to improve. This bug bounty program will help ensure that our code is as secure as possible. And our unique loyalty scheme will encourage the security community to become experts when it comes to Uber."
You can click here for more information on Uber's bug bounty initiative.
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