The series of lockdowns might have been disastrous for a lot of people but the hackers have utilized this time since they have always preferred to be quarantined with their computers.
The report says the hackers have earned a record amount of $40m (£28m) in 2020by reporting software flaws and bugs through a leading bug bounty reporting service.
HackerOne, the service said that nine hackers have gained more than $1m each after finding and flagging them to the affected organizations.
A Romanian hacker said he made a total of $2m who has been doing big hunting for only two years. The top-earning hacker of the hacker of UK made $370,000 last year.
The platform said that the pandemic has given the volunteers more courage and time to pursue the endeavor. HackerOne Commission said that there has been a 38% hike in the number of bug hunters since the lockdowns started.
Many of the volunteers are involved in some work or high school kids who are extremely tech-savvy. Most of them are based in different countries like the US, China, Egypt, Argentina, India, and many others.
The amount of money that is rewarded depends on the character or features of the bug. Depending on the severity of the flaw the reward can range from $140 or less than to much bigger handsome amounts.
California-based company HackerOne provides the amount to the users, instead they only take a subscription fee for the platform.
A similar platform based in France, named YesWeHack, said that around 22,000 hackers submitted a double number of bugs in 2020 than the previous year.
Chief executive Guillaume Vassault-Houlière said, “Given the new risks and the importance of cyber-security in the economic survival of companies, an increasing number of chief information security officers have turned to bug bounties.”
Another platform, BugCrowd said that it has witnessed a 50% increase in bug submissions in the last 12 months.
Bug Bounty has become one of the greater aspects of making money and it has garnered its popularity in the last five years. However, the overwhelming increase took place within the last year.
