WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (APP):The Pentagon has fixed more than 2,800 security problems after hackers from more than 50 countries,
responded to the department’s vulnerability disclosure programme launched a year ago, media reports
said on Saturday.
The programme opened on November 21, 2016 allowed good hackers from around the world to
notify to the US Department of Defense, or Pentagon, about cyber security problems in one of
its public-acing websites.
The bold initiative came shortly after another programme called the ‘Hack the Pentagon’, which
offered cash rewards for anyone who identified a valid security problem. Although the vulnerability
disclosure programme did not offer any incentives, hackers still provided valuable information for
the Pentagon.
According to media reports, about 650 hackers from more than 50 countries submitted security
glitches that needed repair. The programme was run by a firm HackerOne that has also ran the Hack
the Pentagon programme.
According to a report by the online magazine The Hill, while most of the responses came from the
United States-based researchers, HackerOne released top nine foreign countries reporting
vulnerabilities.
The initiative was good but a bold one given the fact that hacking protected system and even
reporting weaknesses is illegal under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. ‘Hack the Pentagon’ project
was thus seen as a bold move.