January 15th, 2008
Come and get it: $20K bounty on Microsoft vulnerabilities
An outfit called Digital Armaments has announced a $20,000 bounty for hackers that cook up and exploitable vulnerability or working exploit for Windows applications.
The contest’s deadline is Feb. 29.
Aside from the creepiness of the whole effort, Ryan Naraine points out that there’s not much known about Digital Armaments. The company is privately held and its backers are a mystery. In any case, Digital Armaments is upping the ante for acquired exploits relative to previous efforts.
So let me get this straight. A relatively unknown company launches contest looking for Windows exploits. I’m a hacker who wants $20,000. But I hesitate. Why? If I don’t know much about Digital Armaments how do I know they even have $20K. Who’s going to sign these checks?
Just a question I’d thought I’d raise before you run off and submit all of your exploits.
Digital Armaments has more details about its program, which sounds perfectly legit–except for the fact you know little about this outfit.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
