How to start an enterprise bug bounty program: A CISO's guide

Vulnerability scanning and penetration testing are two common tactics security teams use to discover and remediate security weaknesses in organization's network. A complementary option is a bug bounty program. These programs financially reward security researchers and ethical hackers for discovering vulnerabilities, with the size of the reward based on the severity of the vulnerability.

A bug bounty program can be a good addition to an organization's regular vulnerability scanning and pen testing programs because they might catch what internal teams miss.

Let's look at what it takes to start an enterprise bug bounty program, including how CISOs can propose the concept to the board, how to design a program and considerations for creating a self-managed program or using a third-party platform.