Indian Hacker Makes $125,000 By Finding Bugs In Major Apps

Cyberattacks, hacks, data breaches, are nothing new to us. Today, various bug bounty programs pay handsomely. Here is a 23-year-old Indian hacker from San Francisco-based HackerOne who reportedly makes $125,000 (roughly Rs. 88.94 lakhs) a year by finding bugs. Companies like Instagram, OnePlus, Twitter, and more work with HackerOne to find bugs on their platform.

Indian Hacker Makes Big Money

On average, Shivam Vashist better known as Bull on Twitter spends 15 hours a week hacking. "However, it varies from time to time, depending on my schedule. Some days, I might be working on something for days continuously, while at other times, I may not be hacking for weeks," he said in an interview.

The Indian hacker began learning about computers and ethical hacking since he turned 19. Although his family worried about him, they gradually understood ethical hacking and its legality. His first bounty came in at the age of 20 from InstaCart followed by MasterCard.

"Hacking gives me a high when I am able to think of creative ways to tackle the challenges and discover vulnerabilities that no one has yet found," he says. He feels that every company should consider having a bug bounty program in place.

Ethical Hacking Community

The world of ethical hacking has slowly been expanding. In the Asia-Pacific region, security programs have grown by 30 percent. It's been reported that the US earned 19 percent of all bounties last year. India topped the second place with 10 percent bounties.

HackerOne had earlier revealed that ethical hackers earned $21 million (approximately Rs. 149.42 crores) a year by reporting vulnerabilities on bugs bounty programs. "HackerOne's 'Hacker-Powered Security Report 2019' shows that $2,336,024 (roughly Rs. 16.62 crores) of the bounties awarded in 2018 went to the ethical hacker community in India," Vashist says.

On a recent note, OnePlus announced its Security Response Center in a tie-up with HackerOne to unveil and report potential threats and possible bugs to the systems. The bounty includes $50-$7,000 range. Apple too has a bug bounty program that pays between $100,000 to $1 million for finding bugs and threats.