Nowadays, companies need to find possible vulnerabilities that may exist on their server. This is the purpose of a bug bounty programme. To refresh your memory a little more, we show you our article (internal link - main keys in a bug bounty programme).

Bug Bounty for businesses

Despite the recognition that this type of programme is gaining, there is currently a lack of trust on the part of companies, even though they are aware of the large number of advantages that they can have at hand.

In this post we present the five most common myths about bug bounty programmes in order to answer any possible doubts that this may raise:

All bug bounty programmes are public. FALSE

Most bug bounty programmes are private, which require an invitation.

It is true that, in the early days of bug bounty, organisations such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft raised the security of applications by launching public bug bounty programmes. That is why bug bounty has come a long way through the public competitions popularised by these organisations, however, its great positive progress was through private programmes.

The main reasons for the success of private software is the use of it by highly skilled security researchers so that companies can have control over what is being tested on their servers.

Only technology companies use bug bounty programmes. FALSE

The evolution of these programmes creates the freedom to operate in any type of organisation, including the size of the organisation.

For companies with a lower risk margin, they gain programme acceptance in internal legal and procurement departments, while more traditional financial services companies prefer to limit the exposure of personal company information through private programmes.

Running a bug bounty programme is too risky. FALSE

At this point we return to the distrust that companies expose about this programme because of the fact that it is getting into their most personal data.

The point is that they must understand that the risk of vulnerability in their areas outweighs the risks that may be generated by such programmes. Authorising this security research will ensure the discovery of unknown vulnerabilities and thus reduce the risk to the company.

Bug bounty programmes do not offer high quality results. FALSE

Bug bounty programmes contribute to discovering much more critical vulnerabilities than traditional security methods.

Most companies already use robust security, automation and penetration testing programmes, but these become more limited to certain vulnerability hotspots. However, with bug bounty, solid results can be found within 24 hours of investigation.

They are too expensive and present a complicated budget. FALSE

The type of bug bounty budget can be monitored and the most urgent needs can be recommended to the company.

While the bug bounty market continues to evolve, success in these programmes requires the right profile, but also rewards. Without guidance and a proven methodology, offering rewards and managing that budget creates a number of unknowns.