How Bug Bounty Programs Are Increasing in India and Helping Secure User Data?

The article is contributed by Priyank Trivedi, Founder, WordPress Webers

The Bug Bounty Program is a transaction offered by many websites, organisations, and software developers that allows individuals to credit and reward bugs, especially security vulnerabilities and bugs related to vulnerabilities. These programs allow developers to find and fix bugs before they are noticed by the general public, preventing widespread misuse incidents. Bug bounty programs are implemented by many organisations in India.

Top Indian Companies offering Bug Bounty Programs:

• Zomato
• Swiggy
• OLA
• Zerodha
• Upstox
• Dukaan
• Flipkart
• Myntra

How does the Bug Bounty program works?

The sequence in the working of the Bug Bounty program are:

Step 1. A researcher will try to find bugs on a platform using software, tools and personal skills.

Step 2. Once the researcher has found the bug, he/she will report it to the Bug Bounty Program of the company along with necessary proofs of the bug.

Step 3. The security team of the company will look into the research provided and evaluate using the steps performed by the researcher.

Step 4. Once the bug is found valid the company will offer “Bounty/Reward” to the researcher for his/her efforts.

Step 5. The Bounty/Reward money depends upon the severity of the bug identified.

Average payouts of Bounties based on severity:

• Informational: No bounty is rewarded
• Low: $50 - $100
• Medium: $200 - $500
• High: $500 - $ 1000
• Critical: More than $1000

How does launching a Bug Bounty Programs help secure the company?

Launching a Bug Bounty programs secures the company in many ways.

• It helps to identify each and every single bug on a large-scale-organisation is nearly impossible since developers are constantly updating new features on the company’s website and mobile applications which can have minor bugs.
• With the help of launching a Bug bounty program, the company need not require to hire a special team to identify and fix bugs on the platform.
• The company also gets the privilege to fix the bug sooner since the bug hunters are specialised in identifying such issues. So the time taken to fix bugs is dramatically lower than ever.
• The company only needs to pay the reward when the bug is found valid. This helps the company to save more money since the payout depends on the bug’s severity and how it affects the end user.
• Ultimate control remains in the hands of the company itself, due to which the company can decide the amount they are willing to pay for the severity of the bug, the company can also shut or change the program as per their requirements.

How Bug Bounty Programs helps Indian Researchers/Bug hunters?

There are several benefits of Bug bounty programs for researchers and Bug hunters:

• Since there is a reward on each bug being reported, the researchers get awarded good money which helps them look for High and Critical bugs since the payout on such bugs is more than Rs. 50,000, which is higher than Average Monthly Salary in India.
• Bug bounty hunting is a growing market in India and many talented individuals in India are great at bug hunting.
• There is no requirement of qualification or age, any individual can learn his way through bug bounty hunting and create a career in the field.
• You get recognition via “Hall of Fame” provided by the company, so you can present your work to your recruiters to showcase how good you are at your job.
• Bug bounty hunting is mostly done remotely, this gives the freedom to the researcher to work from anywhere around the world and hunt for bugs on different programs and the reward is received via wire transfer due to which it makes it more easy for the researcher to work at any hour of the day and any place and the reward will be credited directly to your account.

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How Bug Bounty program is affecting Indian users?

Since, India is a Developing country, people here are new at tech, due to lack of
understanding in cybersecurity and privacy, they may fall under the trap of scams by providing valuable information to an attacker or in worse case the attacker can steal valuable information through the company’s application itself. By hosting a Bug bounty program, the researchers tend to remove all possibilities of data leaks, account takeover and many more cases where the users and company is affected.

Companies like Swiggy, Dukaan and Zerodha have made their platforms secured due to which their applications are safer to use than others r, this also helps the company develop competitive advantage by gaining trust and credibility that the user’s personal data is secured with their application.

By implementing Bug Bounty Programs, these companies have speed up the process of fixing major bugs in their applications. This is all possible with the help of these programs where the company gets the privilege to secure the application before the users are affected.

India also has the most safest payment portal BHIM UPI which is more secured tech than other modes of payment. This is all possible by launching bug bounty programs and skilled bug hunters.

However there are many Indian companies who still haven’t adopted the benefits of a Bug Bounty program. If more companies launch bug bounty programs the easier it will be for researchers to help the company fix bugs in their applications.

Where is Bug Bounty Programs listed?

Most companies appoint Bug Bounty platforms where there are existing bug hunters available, which are as follows:

1. HackerOne
2. Bug Crowd
3. Synack
4. WordPress Webers (Indian Platform)
5. Bugbase (Indian Platform)
6. Yes We Hack

These platforms have registered bug hunters who hunt for bugs in return for a bounty. Companies host their programs on these platforms to speed up the process of bug resolution. Any user can sign up for these programs just like you sign up on a social media platform and start your bug hunting journey.

Perks of joining Bug Bounty Platforms?

You get the opportunity to meet people who are bug hunters/researchers and learn from them how to start bug hunting, you can also collaborate with them and hunt for bugs as a team.