Hackers legally attack the Pentagon and Apple for big money

Фото: Depositphotos

Nathaniel Veiklam became a “bounty hunter” when he was 18 years old.

Now he has a 21 year, this is his main work, which for the 3 weeks of August has already brought him $ 21 150, writes The Guardian.

His income varies from month to month, but for the year Nathaniel earns no less than $ 250 thousand, working from a home or cafe.

He saves most of his money, but also does charity work aimed at “connecting” novice hackers with professionals in this matter. In 2015, he paid for a trip to a conference in New Zealand for 6 people, spending the amount he earned in 48 hours.

Weiklam represents a new generation of so-called "white hat hackers" who hack not for criminal purposes, but to expose security or software gaps in large companies that reward them handsomely.

This month, Apple has joined the list of companies paying for “headhunting”, offering $ 200 thousands to those who find vulnerabilities in its security system. Similar programs already exist on Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe, Tesla, Yahoo and Google.

“Headhunting” is also practiced by state bodies. In March, the Pentagon conducted a similar operation, during which 58 hackers were asked to find vulnerabilities in its system. For 3 weeks of such 134 was discovered, for which the Pentagon paid participants $ 70 thousands.

Facebook was one of the first to launch such programs; it happened back in 2011. During this period, the company paid more than $ 4,3 million for 800 “bounty hunters” from 127 countries of the world. A million dollars was paid in 2015 to the authors of 13 thousands of Facebook vulnerability notifications received last year. The 10-year-old schoolboy from Finland received an award in the $ 10 thousand, who discovered an error in the Instagram code.

The exact size of the “white hacking” market is unknown, since not all companies publish data on their “bounty hunting” programs and awards amounts; In addition, some of them use third parties to order such services.

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