The old adage says ignorance is bliss. The security professional would almost certainly disagree, especially when not knowing about a vulnerability can cost a company millions of dollars and a hefty chunk of its reputation if it is exploited. Given that most organizations rely on web applications and APIs for their bread and butter, it’s in their best interests to flush out weaknesses in their software code.
Organizations need to be especially wary of zero-day vulnerabilities, which are weaknesses found before the software creator is aware of them. Whenever possible, organizations should aim to find gaps in security prior to the onset of an attack. One of the most common solutions to this is a bug bounty program, in which ethical hackers are paid to find vulnerabilities. It’s much less expensive to pay a bounty hunter to find those vulnerabilities so that they can be patched and reported to antivirus providers first.
How Bug Bounty Programs Work
Many organizations don’t have the time or resources to track down every vulnerability hiding in their software. Happily for both these organizations and many a freelancing hacker, bug bounty programs are a straightforward, highly effective way to track down potential exploits. Bug bounties provide rewards for identifying vulnerabilities, so if a hacker finds one and reports it to the company, he will be paid for the service (though it bears noting that companies only pay for successful reports). It may seem risky to trust someone to break into your website, but this can be mitigated by contacting reputable groups or companies that will connect you with vetted, ethical hackers.
Bug bounty programs shouldn’t replace automated scanners, but they are an important part of a thorough risk mitigation plan. Automated security testing and scanning will expose many of your software’s vulnerabilities, but tests are not always completely reliable. For example, SAST tends to generate a lot of false positives, and DAST has been known to miss a vulnerability from time to time. Although these scanners can help detect vulnerabilities and will streamline the detection process, some weaknesses need a human touch.
Bug Bounties and Zero Day Vulnerabilities
No one wants to pay a bounty hunter to find known issues, so all vulnerabilities found by a bug bounty program are zero-days, or unknown potential exploits. Although zero-day vulnerabilities are not the majority of vectors used in successful attacks, they can be the most dangerous because organizations are not prepared for them. This extends recovery time and raises the risk of data exposure or deletion. Additionally, some companies, like Uber, have faced congressional investigation following zero-day vulnerability exploitation, and they later adopted bug bounty programs to reduce risk going forward.
Supporting bug bounties enables an organization to find and fix zero-days before they can be exploited. The program is also useful for prioritization as security teams can reference the hackers’ methods to predict potential attack strategies. Outsourcing zero-day vulnerability detection is also useful for your organizational goals; if your security team isn’t focusing on finding weaknesses, the resources can be directed to addressing the issues bounty hunters find, known vulnerabilities, and other projects that might otherwise be relegated to the backburner.
The Benefits of Bug Bounties for Zero Day Management
Bug bounties are vastly cheaper than data breaches. Typical bounties range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars; in contrast, a data breach or other security incident costs companies millions of dollars on average. Financial strain aside, an attack can damage your organization’s reputation or cause a compliance violation. Reputational damage tends to have financial impacts due to customer loss, and compliance violations often result in heavy fines. Litigation may also result from customer data being compromised.
Ultimately, your most financially soluble plan is to invest in bug bounty hunters as they are highly effective tools for reducing your risk of disaster, especially when combined with automated scanning solutions and robust risk management and disaster recovery plans. However, prompt patching and updating will be necessary following vulnerability detection. If bounty hunters have found the vulnerability, malicious hackers are likely not far behind. To protect your application in the meantime, be sure to implement WAFs, RASPs, and other traffic-monitoring solutions that can help keep the attackers away from the vulnerabilities.
The improvements in cybersecurity that bug bounty programs provide benefit organizational security, compliance, and reputation. Creating a bug bounty program for your organization will result in a more specialized and effective security posture than can be built with automated scanners alone. Although the scanners are important, bug bounties complement them and reduce your risk of attack. Web exposure means that any attacker can access your software, but by implementing multifaceted prevention tactics, you can lower your risk of a security incident and substantial financial loss.
