Coinbase, a renowned virtual currency exchange with its headquarters in San Francisco, has just coughed up a jaw-dropping $30 000 reward to the person who pinpointed a crucial bug in its software.
The reward in question was issued due to the conditions of the Coinbase Bug Bounty Program that operates on the platform known as HackerOne. This program is intended to eliminate any kind of software vulnerabilities in the Coinbase system by the involvement of independent security researchers.
According to the rules of the program, the Bug Bounty rewards are classified according to the level of severity of the error found by a researcher. Thus, there are low, medium, high and critical vulnerability thresholds each paying out $200, $2 000, $15 000 and $50 000 respectively.
As it stands, the latest $30 000 bounty payment falls in the tier category of between high vulnerability and critical vulnerability. This is by far the most costly bug in Coinbase services, and it is reported to be completely rectified.
Ethical hacking is necessary
If you scroll down through the Hacktivity page on HackerOne, you find that the general public has indeed contributed to the proper functioning of the software systems of one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. That said, throughout a couple of years, people have been reporting bugs, most of which were of low or medium severity. However, the records also demonstrate many instances of more serious errors ($3 000 – $7 500 rewards issued) and odd occasions of paying $10 000 and $20 000 bounties.
As most skillful hackers are constantly setting their sights at crypto exchanges, spotting bugs in software is a vital mission. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Bug Bounty platforms keep flourishing and celebrating the contribution of white hat hackers.
So kudos to white hat hacking! And a huge round of applause to WildTornado’s highly secure and sophisticated Bitcoin games!
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