Every website, application or system, no matter how good the software engineers are, will always have errors or vulnerabilities—quite commonly known as “bugs”. This is a basic fact for anyone who writes code or interacts with it on a daily basis. There will always be bugs, which is why there is such a thing as debugging. In cybersecurity, we take this several levels higher when we run a “Bug Bounty Program” or BBP.

Bug Bounty Programs include bug bounties or incentives to encourage cybersecurity professionals with a wide range of skill sets and experiences to find, identify, and report potential vulnerabilities. It is similar to the Vulnerability Disclosure Program (VDP), referred to as “if you see something, say something.” However, VDP creates a framework for interacting with and accepting help from the community of cybersecurity professionals. In BBP, no money changes hands until the vulnerability is validated and determined to be compliant with the terms specified on the policy page of the program.

Core Elements

  • Secure Platform
    Secuna provides a secure platform to properly receive, coordinate, organize, review and offer vulnerability submissions from the trusted cybersecurity professionals.
  • Trusted Community
    Secuna has a pool of Trusted Cybersecurity Professionals who have gone through the extensive KYC process. These cybersecurity professionals (aka security researchers), help to discover and identify vulnerabilities.
  • Professional Triage Team
    Secuna offers Secuna MANAGED service. In this service, the internal Information Security Team of Secuna communicates with a pool of trusted cybersecurity professionals, validate vulnerability reports, determine appropriate severity, and collaborate with engineers for remediation.

Benefits

BBP is a win/win solution for both organizations and cybersecurity professionals. Both parties gain advantages and benefits from their collaboration for a common goal of securing systems or websites.

For Organizations:

  • Avoid Major Losses
    Major losses are avoided by detecting vulnerabilities and fixing them. There will always be bugs no matter how much testing a system has been subjected to since there is no such thing as a perfect system.
  • Uncover All Vulnerabilities
    Crucial vulnerabilities are not overlooked since more eyes look after the system of an organization.
  • Cost-Effective Cybersecurity
    Rewarding a few thousand bounties is more cost-effective than losing valuable data. Data breaches can lead to millions worth of damages including the reputation of the company.

For Cybersecurity Professionals:

  • Opportunity to Learn
    Cybersecurity Professionals can now test their skills in finding vulnerabilities of different systems built by professional engineers.
  • Gain Recognition
    They gain recognition among their peers within the same community that helps to widen their network.
  • Earn Money
    Substantial cash rewards await with the use of their special skills set.

How to run a Bug Bounty Program?

Below is a definitive guide on how to plan, launch, and operate a successful bug bounty program.

Bug Bounty Program Visibility

At Secuna, Bug bounty programs can either be open or private. Here’s how they differ:

  • Open Bug Bounty Program is for all KYC-approved cybersecurity professionals who are open to report submissions from the users of Secuna. All cybersecurity professionals signed up to Secuna of different expertise and skillsets are given rights to test the security program. For cybersecurity professionals who just signed up and have not received any private invitations yet, participating in open programs is a great way to build credentials.
  • Private Bug Bounty Program is a security program that is not published in the programs list page of Secuna. Only those cybersecurity professionals who received invitations can submit vulnerabilities to a program. All vulnerability reports for these programs remain confidential and no one should explicitly divulge the vulnerabilities found.

Bug Bounty Table

A bug bounty table shows the following:

  1. How much you're willing to give as incentive or reward for valid security vulnerabilities,
  2. Helps set standards and expectations for cybersecurity professionals, and
  3. Provide you and your team a guideline to ensure fair and consistent rewards.

Normally, bug bounty payout is based on the severity of the reported vulnerability. Secuna follows and provides Common Vulnerability Scoring System 3.1 or CVSS 3.1 to help program owners and cybersecurity professionals in calculating the exact severity of the vulnerability.

Secuna is currently focused on helping Startups and SMEs, which follows the bounties across all severities in the table below:

Secuna Leads by example with our own BBP

In more than 700 BBPs that are currently active globally, anyone aware of the program who wants to give it a try and find security bugs in their systems is challenged. Those who can break into the system successfully are rewarded with the corresponding bounty.

Secuna joined the list of companies with active BBP through our very own program as we relaunched a more robust testing platform just this February. Cash rewards or bug bounty offered to cybersecurity professionals ranges from 50 US Dollars for vulnerabilities of low severity up to 200 US Dollars or more for critical security issues.

This program encourages cybersecurity professionals and anyone to sign up on the program to analyze the Secuna website for bugs and report any findings. A very big help in ensuring that only the best quality cybersecurity testing platform is provided to our users.

Secuna is a trusted cybersecurity testing platform that provides organizations a robust and secure platform that enables them to collaborate with the top security researchers from around the world to find and address security vulnerabilities.

Talk to a Secuna representative today to learn more about our Bug Bounty Program.