The U.S. Department of Defense announced on Monday that it has created a new Vulnerability Disclosure Program to help guide researchers on how to report security flaws found in the DoD’s public websites.
Vulnerability Disclosure Program
Unlike the Hack the Pentagon and the Hack the Army program, this disclosure policy does not include any rewards. Instead, this policy provides researchers with a legal avenue for reporting security flaws.
Hackers who find any vulnerabilities in public websites owned, operated or controlled by the DoD, in particular, defense.gov and .mil domains, can submit a report through HackerOne. The organization promises to acknowledge reports within three business days and publicly recognize those who submit valid issues.
Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, claims, “The Vulnerability Disclosure Policy is a ‘see something, say something’ policy for the digital domain. We want to encourage computer security researchers to help us improve our defenses. This policy gives them a legal pathway to bolster the department’s cybersecurity and ultimately the nation’s security.”
This announcement comes after the recent success found in the Hack the Pentagon program. Over 1,400 hackers signed up for the initiative, 250 of which submitted one vulnerability report during the program and 138 of those submissions were eligible for a bounty. This initiative only cost $150,000, half of which represented the bounty rewards given to security researchers.
Hack the Army Program Kicks-Off
The Hack the Army program was also announced earlier this month, which offers cash rewards to hackers who find vulnerabilities in select, public-facing Army websites. This program offers dynamic exchanges of personally identifiable information, sites considered critical to the Army’s recruiting mission.
Registration for the program opened yesterday, November 21, at https://www.hackerone.com/hackthearmy. Registration is open until November 28 and will run between November 30 and December 21.
Army Secretary Eric Fanning explained, “Although we have a very well train, incredibly capable security team in the military, it’s not enough. The more different sets of eyes, more different teams that we can bring to this problem, the more secure we’re going to feel about our information.”
NNT & DISA STIG Compliance
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Read this article on SecurityWeek
Read the DoD’s Announcement here