AI tool Xbow becomes first non-human to top ethical hacker leaderboard

What just happened? Just a year after its founding, cybersecurity startup Xbow has risen to the top of the HackerOne leaderboard, a platform that ranks the world's most effective bug hunters by the number and severity of vulnerabilities they uncover for major companies. This marks the first time an artificial intelligence system has claimed the number one spot, outpacing thousands of human ethical hackers and security researchers who have traditionally dominated the field.

Xbow's rapid ascent is a striking signal of how artificial intelligence is reshaping the landscape of software security. The AI-driven tool, developed by a team led by founder and CEO Oege de Moor, has earned a "reputation" score on HackerOne that is nearly 25 percent higher than its closest human competitor. Since its launch, Xbow has identified hundreds of software flaws – ranging from SQL injections and cross-site scripting to remote code execution – across products from ...