Armed Forces News

‘White-Hat Hacking’ Unveils Cyber-Security Breaches

Hackers who were vetted and screened by the Air Force discovered 207 vulnerabilities in its cyber system, the Air Force announced. Under the program, which ran online from May 30 to June 23, more than 270 such hackers from the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand found holes in the Air Force’s computer network. For their efforts, they collectively shared more than $130,000 in bounties. Two of the hackers were on active duty. Another was 20 years old. One 17-year-old participant earned the largest share of the bounty, by filing 30 valid reports of security vulnerabilities. In time, Air Force cyber-security officials say, such bounties for vetted hackers will become common practice. “We can approach that reality [in] one of two ways. We can deny it, or we can be proactive, open to it and use every tool in our toolbox to remediate or mitigate them,” said Hunter Price of the Air Force Digital Service.

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