T
he global security threat scenario has changed radically
in recent times. If hackers of yore were mainly
hobbyists testing the security limits of corporate
systems as an intellectual challenge, the new threat comes
from well-concerted plans hatched by criminal gangs working
online with an eye to profit, or to compromise and damage
information technology systems.
The widespread hack attacks have also become possible
because of the high degree of connectivity of devices,
like smartphones, laptops and tablets, that run a variety of
operating systems.
When consumer data gets compromised it has an
immediate impact on the brand and reputation of the
affected company, as was evident when Verizon cut its
purchase price for Yahoo by US$ 350 million, after a
online portal revealed that it had been repeatedly hacked.
When the data of a company gets compromised and isfollowed by frequent attempts to conceal the fact after
the incident, it can seriously impact whether customers
will continue to deal with the company in any way. In
the final analysis, customers are not willing to put their
data at risk with a vendor who does not value and protect
their personal information.
India has not been spared in this regard. Recent reports
allege that customer data at telecom giant Reliance Jio
was compromised and previously, this occurred at online
restaurant guide Zomato.
Companies need to team up with the right kind of
hackers. Organisations cannot on their own match the wiles
of the thousands of very smart hackers. This battle cannot
be fought with internal resources alone. Companies need to
build a culture of information-sharing on security issues with
government CERTs (computer emergency response teams),
security companies and security researchers.After a spate of high-profile ransomware and malware infiltrated IT systems
worldwide, Indian enterprises are now sitting up and adopting bug bounty
programmes to protect their applications from hacking attacks.Advertorial
18 | DECEMBER 2017 | OPEN SOURCE FOR YOU | http://www.OpenSourceForU.com
The Growing Popularity of
Bug Bounty Platforms