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Security researchers' time is valuable. They spend their own time trying to find vulnerabilities that black hat hackers would use against their users, possibly
by jdiez17 13y ago
Security researchers' time is valuable. They spend their own time trying to find vulnerabilities that black hat hackers would use against their users, possibly at a profit. They report it to the company giving them a chance to fix their problems. It's called responsible disclosure, and the compensation keeps the smart guys on your side.
It doesn't even have to be monetary - for example, GitHub maintains a list[1] of people who have responsibly disclosed vulnerabilities, and they often send them a shirt or something similar.
[1] https://help.github.com/articles/responsible-disclosure-of-security-vulnerabilities https://help.github.com/articles/responsible-disclosure-of-s...
- tedunangst 13y agoThis sounds remarkably like how the squeegee men operate in a big city. Oh, hey, I just washed your windshield, you owe me some money. No? Oops, terribly sorry about that scratch as I walked by.
- Yen 13y agoExcept the squeegee men offer a service that you don't really need, and doesn't offer you much value. Responsible disclosure to a company is often much more important than a clean windshield is to you.
- gradstudent 13y ago> Security researchers' time is valuable. Maybe. But nobody asked these guys to do a thing. Ergo, no foul.