Over the years Sony have suffered some major issues with system outages, including the DDos attacks of December 2014 in which PlayStation Network was targeted and went down for extended periods of time, spoiling what should have been an exciting Holiday period for millions. While there hasn’t been a major outage in a while Sony seem determined to quash any security issues with the PSN in time for the PlayStation 5’s launch, which is still due later this year.
Announced in an official PlayStation Blog Post, Sony are launching what they call a “public PlayStation Bug Bounty Program”. They state “We believe that through working with the security research community we can deliver a safer place to play.”. The idea is to get the PlayStation Community to discover system breaking bugs, in order to improve safety, and then rewarding bounties to those who discover them. The top bounties start from $50,000 and are awarded to those who discover critical vulnerabilities with the Playstation 4. The program itself promises rewards for various issues relating to both the PlayStation 4 and Playstation Network.
The Playstation Bug Bounty program has already been been privately running for a little while now with a selection of private researchers, however Sony state “We recognize the valuable role that the research community plays in enhancing security, so we’re excited to announce our program for the broader community.”
The program is being run in association with a security platform called HackerOne, who have an official, more detailed post on their website, which includes a breakdown of the different bounty values, a deeper overview of the program and some more terms and conditions that those who report issues can expect. The HackerOne post also offers some statistics on the program so far, which states they’ve dished out nearly $174,000 already including a top bounty of $40,000.
It remains to be seen whether they’ll move the program to the PS5 ready for launch, however it would make total sense given the issues surrounding the launch of the PS4. If you’re excited for the PS5 why not check out all our coverage right here.
The post PlayStation Bug Bounty Program Announced With $50,000 Rewards by Sam Woods appeared first on DualShockers.