The Bug Bounty is a vulnerability reward program that emerged as an idea to collaborate with the community of hackers and cybersecurity professionals, targeting those who enjoy finding vulnerabilities for fun, with the key difference being that you can get paid for it.
Netscape was the pioneer in launching its Bug Bounty program for hackers in 1995, rewarding them with legitimate PoCs (Proof of Concepts). Over the years, this concept has grown and provided many researchers with extra income through both private and public bug bounty programs.
But what is the difference compared to PTaaS?
The difference lies in the visibility of what is being tested. In a Bug Bounty program, even with a predefined scope, you have no control over what can be tested externally. In contrast, with PTaaS, you gain that visibility and complete control over every detail.
In a Bug Bounty, you typically do not have a re-test; thus, another researcher may refine an already exploited vector and discover a new method of exploitation. However, you end up with researchers of varying skill levels, which can provide different levels of impact visibility.
On the other hand, with PTaaS, you have multiple tests within your scope as scheduled, and of course, the reports from a PTaaS are generally more detailed than those from a Bug Hunter. This is why companies, alongside their Bug Bounty programs, offer additional incentives for high-quality reports.
HackerSec is a reference in cybersecurity and provides PTaaS for the largest companies. Learn more at: https://hackersec.com/empresas/
So, can bug bounty and PTaaS coexist?
Yes, because when you combine Bug Bounty with PTaaS, you achieve extensive coverage of your scope. After all, you have the Hacker community searching for vulnerabilities alongside specialists focused on their respective areas, auditing and providing more detailed insights into vulnerabilities and remediation strategies.
Typically, companies adopt PTaaS only for their most critical and sensitive applications, where they do not want external researchers looking for flaws. They often keep bug bounty programs as an option for their less critical applications to save on annual penetration testing costs.