As some of you will know, recently I have been consulting with HackerOne.
I just wanted to share a new competition we launched yesterday called Hack The World. I think it could be interesting to those of you already hacking, but also those of you interested in learning to hack.
The idea is simple. HackerOne provides a platform where you can go and hack on popular products/services (e.g. Uber, Adobe, GitHub, Square, Slack, Dropbox, GM, Twitter, Yahoo!, and many more) and submit vulnerability reports. This is awesome for hackers as they can safely hack on products/services, try out new hacking approaches/tools, build relationships with security teams, build a resume of experience, and earn some cold hard cash.
Currently HackerOne has 550+ customers, has paid over $8.9 million in bounties, and fixed over 25,000 vulnerabilities, which makes for a safer Internet.
Hack The World
Hack The World is a competition that runs from 20th July 2016 – 19th September 2016. In that time period we are encouraging people to hack programs on HackerOne and submit vulnerability reports.
When you a submit a vulnerability report that is valid, the program may award you a bounty payment (many people all over the world earn significant buckets of money from bounties). In addition, you will be rewarded reputation and signal. Reputation is an indicator of active activity and participation, and signal is the average reputation in your reports.
Put simply, whoever earns the most reputation in the competition can win some awesome prizes including $1337 in cash, a hackable FPV drone kit, awesome limited edition swag, and bragging rights as being one of the most talented hackers in the world.
To ensure the competition is fair for everyone, we have two brackets – one for experienced hackers and one for new hackers. There will be 1st, 2nd, and runner up prizes in each bracket. This means you folks new at hacking have a fighting chance to win!
Joining in the fun
Getting started is simple. Just go and register an account or sign in if you already have an account.
To get you started, we are providing a free copy of Peter Yaworski’s awesome Web Hacking 101 book. Ensure you are logged in and then go here to grab the book. It will then be emailed to you.
Now go and and find a program, start hacking, learn how to write a great report, and submit reports.
When your reports are reviewed by the security teams in the programs you are hacking on the reputation will be awarded. You will then start appearing on the Hack The World Leaderboard which at the time of writing looks a little like this:
So that’s the basic idea. You can read all the details about Hack The World by clicking here.
Hack The World is a great opportunity to hack safely, explore new hacking methods/tools, make the Internet safer, earn some money, and potentially be crowned as a truly l33t hacker. Go hack and prosper, people!
