DoD invites Hackers to "Hack the Pentagon"
U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) has launched the first ever bug bounty program in the history of federal government. In a press released published earlier this week on U.S. DoD website officials invited all the hackers and security researchers; to test their department's cyber security.
The bug bounty program has been a big revolution for major giants like; Google, Facebook,Apple, Android, Microsoft etc. It helped them in discovering new bugs before any cyber criminal exploits them. The bug bounty program kicks off from 16th April 2016; the participation rules are not announced yet. One disappointing news for many hackers and security researchers is - participant should have a U.S. citizenship.
The motive behind the launch of bug bounty program is to ameliorate the security and digital services. Any hacker who will participate in this bug bounty program will have a background check. Never before a government sector has launched a bug bounty program.
“I am always challenging our people to think outside the five-sided box that is the Pentagon,” said Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. “Inviting responsible hackers to test our cybersecurity certainly meets that test. I am confident this innovative initiative will strengthen our digital defenses and ultimately enhance our national security.”
The bug bounty program has been a big revolution for major giants like; Google, Facebook,Apple, Android, Microsoft etc. It helped them in discovering new bugs before any cyber criminal exploits them. The bug bounty program kicks off from 16th April 2016; the participation rules are not announced yet. One disappointing news for many hackers and security researchers is - participant should have a U.S. citizenship.
The motive behind the launch of bug bounty program is to ameliorate the security and digital services. Any hacker who will participate in this bug bounty program will have a background check. Never before a government sector has launched a bug bounty program.
“I am always challenging our people to think outside the five-sided box that is the Pentagon,” said Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. “Inviting responsible hackers to test our cybersecurity certainly meets that test. I am confident this innovative initiative will strengthen our digital defenses and ultimately enhance our national security.”
Last year was pretty hard on U.S. Department of Defence because of constant attacks on their websites and servers. The most devastating breach happened last year when more than 20,000 agents details were stolen from DoD systems. Currently, there are around 448 websites managed by DoD; many of them have been targeted several times in past year or so.
Monzy Merza, Chief Security Evangelist and Director of Cyber Research at Splunk said; "The DoD already has mature red teams and offensive cyber capabilities. Bug bounty programs are fairly common in the technology industry. This DoD program will strengthen DoD deployments, exercise blue team capabilities, and shine a light on those who build the DoD's Internet presence.”
The security industry has been suffering a lot in recent years because of the shortage of skilled cyber security experts. That's why the bug bounty programs are seen as the best solution by many private companies to secure their networks and eliminate vulnerabilities. Many youngsters are now benefited from these programs if possesses the right skills. And those skills can only be developed if you have learned them from someone or somewhere.
