Brenda Marie Rivers
Microsoft has launched a bounty program in an effort to fortify the security of its new software development kit ahead of the 2020 elections.
Jarek Stanley, a senior program manager at Microsoft’s Security Response Center, wrote in a blog post published Friday that the company will award up to $15K in prizes to participants that can discover vulnerabilities in its ElectionGuard SDK offering that is designed to secure voting processes.
The open-source platform, unveiled in May as part of Microsoft’s Defending Democracy Program, is intended to enable voters and third-party entities to perform end-to-end verification and confirm the accuracy of vote counts.
As part of the bug bounty program, participants will work to identify ElectionGuard vulnerabilities, submit a proof of concept and share their discoveries with Microsoft under a Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure agreement.
According to Stanley, Microsoft works with security researchers every year to identify ways of fortifying the security of its systems supporting customers around the world. The company has awarded $4.4M in prizes across 11 bug bounty programs since last year.
