CALLING ALL COMPANIES, WHITE HATS, AND GREY HATS: HAVE YOU HEARD OF HACKERONE?

Based in California, HackerOne is a relatively new security disclosure company that’s created a website that promises to help make it easier and safer for security researchers to get and manage jobs. This incredibly successful website enables companies to easily set up bug bounty programs that hackers can peruse and participate in if they wish. Hackers may even remain anonymous on HackerOne but in that case their bounty (i.e., payment) will go to the charity of their choice.

“We see a big shift coming toward companies realizing they have to work with […] [hackers] to make everyone better, (2)” says HackerOne co-founder and CEO Merijn Terheggen. The numbers back him up as HackerOne’s already gained over 250 customers including Twitter, Snap Chat, Word Press, Dropbox, Yahoo!, and Adobe. The company’s also earned an impressive total of $34 million from angel investors to date.

“The exciting thing for us,” says Terheggen, “is [that] these angel investors have seen the platform work at their companies and [ ] realize what kind of pivotal change it brings to the security of their products and users. (3)” So HackerOne seems like a hot new resource for companies and hackers alike, bringing them together in innovative and amazing ways. Hopefully it can keep this momentum going!

1. https://hackerone.com/ 2. http://fortune.com/2015/06/24/hackerone-raises-series-b/ 3. ibid