Internet bug bounty program receives $300K from Facebook, Ford Foundation

The Internet Bug Bounty(IBB) program has received donations of $100,000 each from Facebook, Github and Ford Foundation that will be used to reward hackers for making the internet a more secure public domain, and allowing the IBB to expand the scope and impact of its already far-reaching bug bounty program.

IBB, a bug bounty program for the Internet founded in 2013 provides financial rewards to hackers who identify critical vulnerabilities in Internet infrastructure and open source software such as Ruby, PHP, Python and OpenSSL. The IBB has rewarded hackers for reporting critical vulnerabilities including ImageTragick($7500), Heartbleed($15000) and Shellshock($20000).

Facebook has sponsored the IBB since its inception but GitHub and Ford Foundation are the new backers. “Open source software underpins the backbone of the internet and society’s most critical digital infrastructure,” said Shawn Davenport, VP of security at GitHub. “We believe deeply in the importance of this initiative, and we’re excited to sponsor the Internet Bug Bounty and support the people who work tirelessly every day to ensure the internet is as safe and secure as it can possibly be.”

Alex Rice, HackerOne CTO, and founder said, “When we have the means to reward altruistic hackers for uncovering critical vulnerabilities in public domains, we are making the internet a safer place for everyone."

The panel will use this round of sponsorship to expand the existing scope of Internet Big Bounty in two ways. Firstly, it will introduce a new "Data Processing Program" which aims to encompass numerous widespread data parsing libraries as these have been an increasing avenue for exploitation. Second, it will expand the coverage of technologies that serve as the technical foundation of a free and open Internet, such as OpenSSL.

Since it was founded in 2013, the IBB has awarded hackers over $600,000 for reporting over 625 vulnerabilities impacting the Internet. Over $150,000 was awarded to hackers in the last year alone for more than 250 vulnerabilities.