Overview#
Program inviting external researchers to report vulnerabilities for rewards. Complements internal testing and encourages responsible disclosure with clear scopes and SLAs.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Bug Bounty for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Bug Bounty activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Bug Bounty works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Bug Bounty, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Bug Bounty healthy.
- Map Bug Bounty practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Bug Bounty might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Bug Bounty failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Bug Bounty continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Bug Bounty with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Bug Bounty improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.