Swatting anti-social bugs

NEW DELHI - Facebook users in India flagged the most bug threats to the social network last year in a bounty scheme that has been identifying genuine security flaws since its launch in 2011 and has so far paid out over US$3 million (S$4 million) in bounties.

Of that figure, US$1.3 million was given to 321 researchers in 2014 alone, according to a Facebook thank-you post on Feb. 25 which noted that overall submissions increased 16 per cent to over 17,000 in the same period.

Facebook has more than 1.4 billion users worldwide, and India with 100 million hosts its second largest population after the US Users in India spotted 196 valid bugs, the largest number in the world by country, generating an average reward of US$1,343.

Egypt and the US came second and third with 81 and 61 bugs respectively, earning average rewards of US$1,220 and US$2,470. The UK earned the highest amount per report with US$2,768, and came fourth followed by the Philippines. The top five countries together earned over US$250,000.

Facebook's bug bounty programme turned up 61 "eligible bugs categorised as high severity" in 2014, up 49 per cent year on year. The US-based social networking site has already received over 100 valid reports this year.

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