PlayStation recently announced that they are starting their own ‘Bug Bounty Program’. This move is an effort to improve the security of your products and then provide users with a better experience.
An initiative like ‘Bug Bounty Programs’ makes a lot of sense. A company cannot be immaculate with its security all the time. These programs encourage ‘ethical hackers’ to help the company get rid of any annoying mistakes its team has overlooked and strengthen its security to defend against cyber attacks.
Geoff Norton, Senior Director of Engineering, Sony Interactive Entertainment writes
“We believe that by working with the security research community we can offer a safer place to play. We’ve partnered with HackerOne to help run this program, and we’re inviting the security research community, gamers, and anyone else to test the security of the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Network. Our bug bounty program is rewarded for various issues, including critical issues on PS4. Critical vulnerabilities for PS4 have rewards starting at $ 50,000. “
He also mentioned that Sony has been running its bug bounty program privately with some researchers, but is now reaching out to the general public to help them with the same thing.
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Why is it necessary for Playstation and Sony?
As mentioned above, it is not possible for any company to focus on every aspect of security. A minor failure that successfully survives all tests could cost millions and the damage caused could be irreparable.
Yahoo! suffered its worst cyberattack in 2014, where around 500 million user accounts were affected. They were attacked a second time in the same year, which was slightly less serious. In 2018, the company admitted that all of its 3 billion user accounts were hacked.
Companies like Adobe, Target, Marriott Hotels and even Sony have been victims of cyber attacks. Such attacks harm the reputation of the company without measure, but it is possible to avoid them.
Sony is not the first company to go public with its bug bounty program. This has been in the industry for years.
Tech giants like Apple, Google and Facebook have their own Bug Bounty programs. Apple rewards bug seekers where the reward can reach $ 200,000, depending on severity. Google pays you between $ 100 and $ 20,000. Facebook has reportedly rewarded 900 ethical hackers for more than $ 5 million since the start of its program.
Even government organizations like the Pentagon use these kinds of programs to scale their security.
This is a great move by Sony to improve the security of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Network.
