Yahoo launches $15,000 bug bounty after $12.50 company voucher debacle
Yahoo launched a bug bounty programme on Friday following the scandal that unravelled last month, which saw a security firm rewarded with a $12.50 Yahoo Company Store voucher for uncovering a security flaw.
In what is good news for security researchers, Yahoo said that the bounty programme will now pay up to $15,000 to ethical hackers who find vulnerabilities in its web services, a much bigger reward than its previous policy of offering a company t-shirt.
Writing on Yahoo's developer blog, the company's head of security Ramses Martinez said the process has been a positive one, despite the voucher payment fiasco. "The response from the security community to our announcement of a formal Yahoo bug bounty [programme] has been extremely positive," Martinez said in a blog post. "All the meetings, emails, new contacts, and tons of discussions have all led to this... we are ready to launch our Bug Bounty [Programme]."
