Mon, 28 Apr 2025

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 What is bug hunting and why is it changing?

Bug hunters make money by funding flaws in software, but AI is changing the way they work.

* Bug bounty hunter Brandyn Murtagh, 26, has been competing in live hackathons and earning big money within his first year of doing so.
* Platforms like Bugcrowd and HackerOne connect hackers with organizations that want their software and systems tested for security vulnerabilities.
* Companies use bug bounty programs to uncover vulnerabilities in their systems and can reward hackers with large sums of money, such as $25,000 or even over $1.2m.
* The rise of AI has created new attack surfaces for bug hunters to explore, but also poses a challenge for the industry: AI is powerful, designed to be used by anyone, and often implemented quickly without considering security implications.
* Security researchers point out that AI systems' reliance on large language models means language skills and manipulation are now important parts of the hacker toolkit.
* The threat posed by AI-powered systems goes beyond just chatbots and large language models; vulnerabilities in one system can have far-reaching consequences for interconnected systems.
* While there hasn't been a major AI-related data breach yet, experts warn it's only a matter of time before one occurs.
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