In an effort to squash bugs and stomp out security exploits, Facebook has begun handing out Visa debit cards to white hat hackers–or “security researchers”–for any bugs and/or exploits they’re able to find.
Researchers can receive a “White Hat Bug Bounty” Visa debit card that acts just as a credit card would. The more bugs and exploits hackers are able to sniff out, the more Facebook will refill the debit card, with a minimum payment said to be $500.
Interestingly, it doesn’t look like there’s a maximum payment, so security researchers could potentially be looking at a significant reward if a serious vulnerability is spotted. There is, of course, a catch to all of this however.
In order for white hat hackers to receive their payout (and not be sued), they must agree not to leak the vulnerability within a “reasonable amount of time” (leaking vulnerabilities is a common last resort method among hackers to force a company to address any vulnerabilities they’re able to find), and must make a “good faith effort” in avoiding privacy violations.
ZDNet reports that the highest bounty paid so far is $5,000, and has been paid out several times. To date, Facebook says that they’ve received help from 84 different researchers.
via ZDNet
