Dive Brief:
- Bug bounty company HackerOne Wednesday announced it received $40 million in series C funding led by Dragoneer Investment Group.
- The company said its hacker community tripled to nearly 100,000 last year, with hacker skill sets including web systems, mobile applications, APIs, IoT devices and open source and infrastructure software.
- HackerOne's investment round comes after several high-profile bug bounty programs it launched, such as Hack the Pentagon and Hack the Army. The Pentagon said it saved more than $1 million in costs from the program while improving security, according to HackerOne.
Dive Insight:
Today, bug bounties have become a best practice in the tech industry and have proven to be incredibly effective in identifying potential vulnerabilities. Large companies like Google, General Electric, Microsoft, United Airlines, Western Union, Tesla Motors and Fiat Chrysler have all participated in bug bounty programs over the last few years.
HackerOne has built a solid reputation conducting bug bounty programs for big names such as GitHub, General Motors and Quora. Last year, HackerOne was selected to help the Pentagon run its ground-breaking Hack the Pentagon bug bounty program, the first known bug bounty program of a federal agency.
Companies that facilitate bug bounty programs rely heavily on "white hat" hackers who donate their time in hopes they can locate a bug and receive a bounty. Now with a roster of more than 100,000 hackers, HackerOne has a strengthened ability to facilitate effective bug bounty programs.