Ethical hackers are set to earn rewards between Ksh25,000 ($250) and Sh200,000 ($2,000) from Safaricom for hacking and responsibly disclosing bugs or vulnerabilities found in any of its products and services.
The award will however depend on the severity of the bug.
The target groups are university and college students, innovation centres and cyber security forums.
Through a partnership with HackerOne, a cyber-security company, hackers can submit bugs they may find in a confidential and responsible manner which will then be vetted and triaged by the HackerOne team independently.
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“The reason for starting this program was to encourage hackers to report any bugs/vulnerabilities that they may find in Safaricom’s products and services to Safaricom in a confidential and ethical manner instead of exploiting them or disclosing them to the public,” said Thibaud Rerolle, Safaricom’s Technology Director.
According to the firm if the issue is found to be valid, HackerOne will then forward it to Safaricom for confirmation before awarding the hacker for their effort.
“The HackerOne platform is used by many Fortune 500 companies – the likes of Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple and even the US Department of Defence,” said Mr Rerolle.
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