HackerOne Celebrates $100 Million in Bounties Paid

HackerOne, a bug bounty platform used by numerous companies and people around the world, just celebrated a new milestone, reaching $100 million in bounties paid.

The term “hacker” might be associated in popular culture with malicious intent, but that”s not exactly the case. In fact, there are many types of hackers, and some of them just make the world a safer place.

One way to achieve that is through platforms such as HackerOne, which brings companies and hackers together in a procedure that has a single goal, to help developers fix problems in their apps with the assistance of hackers.

Companies offer bounties to hackers who can compromise their products. The bigger the flaws they find, the bigger the bounties. In fact, just recently, HackerOne paid $2.4 million in less than a week. From the looks of it, companies are willing to keep increasing those bounties because it ultimately means they are investing in their products and keeping them safe at the same time.

“Over time, we observed something amazing and unexpected. Hackers were collaborating across time zones and cultures, sharing insights, tools, and techniques,” wrote HackerOne on tits blog. “What”s more, hackers and security teams running bounty programs were forming bonds that transcended a single report. More and more security teams realized hackers are an extension of their team.”

In fact, bug bounties are becoming an integral part of businesses as companies reserve budgets for this type of activity. In the meantime, the term “hacker” becomes a let less frightening than it used to be.

HackerOne is not the only platform of its kind out there. Their direct competitor is Bugcrowd, not to mention that some of the larger companies pay bounties directly to hackers or have their own bug bounty programs.