Redmond takes the security of its software very, very seriously, and if you ever needed more proof of this, the bug bounty program Microsoft launched should be more than enough.
The company promised to offer cash prizes to people who could find vulnerabilities in two of its prime products that were in development at that time — Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11.
But while the company already announced yesterday it had handed out some $28,000 in cash to security experts that had unearthed flaws in Internet Explorer 11 Preview, and now the technology titan has confirmed the recipient of its first ever $100,000 bounty win.
The lucky winner is James Forshaw, a security vulnerability researcher working with Context Information Security. He managed to find a critical security flaw in the upcoming OS.
Microsoft explained this saying:
“Coincidentally, one of our brilliant engineers at Microsoft, Thomas Garnier, had also found a variant of this class of attack technique. Microsoft engineers like Thomas are constantly evaluating ways to improve security, but James’ submission was of such high quality and outlined some other variants such that we wanted to award him the full $100,000 bounty.”
Forshaw, as you may have noticed, also won some money in the IE 11 Preview bug bounty.
Needless to say he will be laughing all the way to the bank. And Windows 8.1 user will be enjoying an even more secure operating system. The operating system launches next week, and will be offered as a free upgrade to current Windows 8 users.
