Intel Makes 3 Change$ to Its Bug Bounty Program

They say "Valentine's Day is for lovers," but at Intel they were expressing their love for security researchers on Valentine's Day 2018.

Still reeling from its Spectre and Meltdown CPU vulnerabilities and problematic fixes, Intel announced it is putting more cash into its bug bounty program as part of its recent "Security First" pledge.

3 Ways Intel is doing more with bug bounties

• Intel is shifting from an invitation-only program to a program that is open to all security researchers—significantly expanding the pool of eligible researchers.
• Intel is offering a new program focused specifically on side channel vulnerabilities through Dec. 31, 2018. The award for disclosures under this program is up to $250,000.
• Intel is raising bounty awards across the board, with awards of up to $100,000 for other areas.

"At Intel, we believe that working with security researchers is a crucial part of identifying and mitigating potential security issues in our products," says Rick Echevarria, who is vice president and general manager of Platform Security at Intel.

Intel initially launched its bug bounty program in March 2017 utilizing the HackerOne platform.