Technology company, HP has announced that it is ready to pay any hacker up to $10,000 for finding software faults or defects in its printers.
HP claims that this program is private for now, and is based on an invite-only model, but it plans to make it public in the future. For now, invited researchers or hackers are given access to a set 15 different HP printers to check and find out vulnerabilities if there are any.
CNET reports that HP started this bug bounty program in May this year, and has already given $10,000 prize to one researcher who pointed out a critical vulnerability. The program has 34 researchers on board at present.
Shivaun Albright, the company’s chief technologist for printer security, told CNET that HP is focused on printer security because of how vulnerable Internet of Things devices are. While there’s a heavy focus on connected devices and their security flaws, it’s often on web cameras, smart televisions or light bulbs, but not printers.
HP’s new bug bounty program will be run through BugCrowd and is based on an invite-only basis to better manage incoming vulnerabilities.
