Bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure programs allow organizations to incentivize good faith third-party security researchers to identify otherwise unknown security vulnerabilities.
By creating a formal ‘bug bounty’ program, organizations can gather vulnerability details from external security researchers in a controlled way and standardize their responses.
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First things first, what is an information security vulnerability?
Vulnerabilities are gaps that create weaknesses in an organization’s systems or products that may expose the organization to attack. An attacker must take further action to exploit a vulnerability and create an actual incident.
In its purest form, the term vulnerability is used to describe a weakness for which no known fix exists. On the other hand, if you discover a weakness in a system and the company who sells the system informs you that changing a particular setting (e.g., disable write access) will eliminate the weakness, that would not be a true vulnerability because a known fix exists. However, in today’s context of businesses, bug bounties and vulnerability disclosures, the term vulnerability can be used to describe any weakness—with or without a known fix.
Vulnerability disclosure programs, also known as bug bounty programs, focus on identifying cyber vulnerabilities.
A vulnerability disclosure program is a process for inviting third parties to find and report cybersecurity vulnerabilities in a sponsoring organization’s software, hardware or online services.
Bug bounty programs seek to: address and reduce cybersecurity risks by gathering input from a broad array of external security researchers with different skills and perspectives; identify cyber vulnerabilities before attackers have an opportunity to discover and exploit them; and
channel vulnerability information directly to the sponsoring organization in a non-public, highly confidential and controlled manner.
By employing external ethical hackers (security researchers), organizations can learn a lot about their environment and what information and data may be at risk, including:
Vulnerability disclosure programs offer a unique method to review and assess information security. The use and acceptance of these programs by a wide variety of organizations in various sectors are growing both domestically and abroad. For the information security community, however, decades-old good security practices have included soliciting outside input to bang on a system to test and improve your security protections.
As online environments become more complex, how organizational, employee and customer data is shared, managed and stored must remain secure. Security is never complete; smart developers and companies recognize the fact that security must be evaluated, tested and improved indefinitely.
Organizations must recognize that cyber incidents involve exploitation of a vulnerability, or in other words, actual or reasonably suspected:
As such, vulnerability disclosure programs help organizations prioritize security in a safe and effective manner, without displacing current employee tasks or responsibilities. Bug bounty programs offer expert insights without investing in new departments and headcount and the guarantee that top-notch security experts are reviewing your security posture in real-time.
As the number of threat actors continues to rise and exploration and data breaches are incentivized with ransomware, bug bounty programs can help your organization stay one step ahead of cyber threats.
Important note! Vulnerability disclosure programs are not a substitute for sound core cybersecurity practices. Be sure to review your incident response plan and ensure your organization is prepared to respond to any cyber attack based on the needs of your organization according to its size; types of data, products or services; and industry.
Successful organizations identify and manage cyber vulnerabilities in multiple ways, including by supporting distinct vulnerability management and vulnerability disclosure programs.
But keep in mind, general cyber vulnerability management programs differ from vulnerability disclosure programs; specifically:
Some organizations choose to implement vulnerability disclosure programs to enhance their cybersecurity posture or reputation. General cyber vulnerability management, however, is a core element of any information security program. For more information on managing cyber vulnerabilities, see Practice Note, Cybersecurity Tech Basics: Vulnerability Management: Overview.
Developing and implementing a bug bounty and vulnerability disclosure program requires five main steps.
Specifically, sponsoring organizations should:
Bug bounty programs are growing in popularity and prevalence but do you really need one?
Sponsoring organizations run vulnerability disclosure programs for many reasons. If any of the points below draw parallels to your current organizational goals and objectives, a bug bounty program might be the right fit for you.
Organizations interested in initiating a bug bounty program often seek to:
ZeroDay Law specializes in incident response planning according to each organization's unique risks, helping in-house counsel and businesses understand and improve their current state of readiness as they face growing cybersecurity threats and evolving legal obligations.
Our team of experts offers cybersecurity law, privacy law and cyber risk compliance services to ensure organizations are prepared to expertly manage the legal and technical requirements that come before, during and after a cyber attack.
Contact us today to learn more about how ZeroDay Law can help protect your business.