"Bug Hunter’s Perspectives on the Challenges and Benefits of the Bug Bounty Ecosystem"
A team led by the University of Maryland received a distinguished paper award for examining the challenges encountered by bug bounty hunters or ethical hackers who discover and report vulnerabilities or bugs to a platform's developer. The paper, titled "Bug Hunter's Perspectives on the Challenges and Benefits of the Bug Bounty Ecosystem," provides insight into the obstacles faced by participants in bug bounty programs. When the ecosystem functions properly, bug bounties can enhance organizations' security posture at a low cost. According to the researchers, communication issues, such as unresponsiveness and disputes, are most likely to discourage bug hunters. They provide recommendations to make the bug bounties ecosystem more accommodating and increase participation in an underutilized market. This article continues to discuss the winning paper on challenges faced by bug bounty hunters and other papers presented at the 32nd USENIX Security Symposium.