For years, Microsoft has refused to offer financial rewards to researchers who tell the company about security flaws in its software, even as Google GOOG -1.73% and Facebook FB -1.68% have ratcheted up their so-called bug bounty programs. Now the software giant has suddenly changed its mindand its even offering even bigger bounties in some cases than those competitors.
On Tuesday Microsoft announced that its now willing to pay up to $100,000 for information about security bugs that can be used to bypass the defenses of Windows, starting with the upcoming preview version of Windows 8.1 to be released later this month. For researchers who also detail new defensive techniques for preventing similar bugs from being exploited in the future, Microsoft will pitch in an extra $50,000 Defense Bonus per submission.
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