Friday, March 18, 2016

Facebook Pays Thousands Of Dollars In Bounties To Indian Researchers


Indian researchers report numerous bugs to Facebook and received thousands of dollars in return.

On March 18, 2016, Facebook stated it has paid a sum of $730,000 to researchers based in India. The money has been paid under the social network company’s bug bounty program, the most heavily paid up till now by the company.
India has more than 142 million and ranks the first among 127 states in terms of the contribution of researchers to the company’s bug bounty program, it posted in a blog. A bug is a defect or error in hardware or software that leads to the program malfunctioning. It is often experienced because of conflicts in software when apps are trying to run together.
While bugs can lead to the production of unanticipated results or crash software, particular defects can be exploited to get unapproved access to technologies. Since its introduction five years ago, more than 2400 valid submissions have been received by the bug bounty program and has rewarded over a sum of $4.3 million to over 800 researchers across the globe.
According to the program, researchers are rewarded for finding vulnerabilities in infrastructure or services and reporting safety bugs that can create privacy or security risks. The team of Facebook bounty hunt program classified 102 submissions of bug bounties past year as those with a high impact, a rise of over 38% over the past year.
Approximately 13,233 total submissions were received by the company in 127 states from 5543 researchers. 210 researchers were paid $936,000 for submitting 526 reports. Elaborating upon how the organization paid bounties to researchers and calculated the risk, an official of the company, Adam Rudderman, said Facebook considers the possible effect of the bug and its potential.
The sum paid in the form of bounties is usually consistent but it could be changed with the evolution of the risks, he told. In other news, Wall Street Journal reported that on March 18, 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ran through the Tinanmen Square in Beijing without wearing a pollution mask, when the air quality index of the city crossed 300 – a standard, which the US Environmental Protection Agency considers “hazardous”.
Most air quality applications and doctors recommend people to refrain from exercising outdoor when the levels of pollution have reached higher levels. EPA claimed that in the United States, reading above 300 are “extremely rare” and are usually witnessed during significant events like forest fires. 
Facebook’s spokesperson said Zuckerberg is visiting the town to attend China Development Forum this weekend, where presidents and CEOs of many organizations will be present to deliberate upon the economic plans of China.


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