[HACK] Finding a PlayStation Bug is Now a Career as Sony Pays You This Much

Jamie P., Tech Times 24 June 2020, 07:06 pm

Sony Corporation has now started its own version of the PlayStation bug bounty program that is opened to the public. If you have skills in looking for irregularities, hacker methods, and such on specific PlayStation Network and PlayStation 4 console, you may apply for the bounty program. Guess how much you'll earn once you find a bug.

Guess how much Sony will pay you once you find a PS4 bug

On Wednesday, June 24, Sony company announced the opening to the public of its PlayStation bug bounty program. Like Apple, Google, and Netflix, the bug bounty program serves as a medium for gamers to earn money by finding PS4 and PlayStation network discrepancies.

Sony will be partnering with bug bounty page HackerOne that will help run the program. All entries-- from small irregularities to huge hacking stunts-- that will be submitted on the platform will bee rewarded with specific bounty.

Unfortunately, Sony will be unable to "award a bounty to researchers who reside in a country that is subject to United States export sanctions or trade restrictions."

"We believe that through working with the security research community, we can deliver a safer place to play," said PlayStation. "We have partnered with HackerOne to help run this program, and we are inviting the security research community, gamers, and anyone else to test the security of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Network."

So, how much are we talking about?

Every irregularity costs an amount of bounty for each bug hunter that will join the program.

HackerOne reported that low priority issues on PlayStation Network will be rewarded with $100-- the minimum amount Sony pays its bug hunter. On the other hand, critical issues on the network will be given up to $3,000.

For PS4 gamers, the minimum prize for low bug irregularities cost as low as $500. Other prizes involve medium issues that cost $2,500, high issues worth $10,000, and those critical problems on PS4 that may cost as high as $50,000 will be rewarded to its hunters.

Since the program involves a lot of money, Sony and HackerOne also want to make sure all entries are legit and not self-inflicted on their software and hardware.

Here are the requirements to join:

Act in good faith
Don't publicize what you find out (before Sony receives your entry)
Don't view, use, alter, transfer, or access any data (personal or otherwise) within Sony's environment
Don't intentionally disrupt, and avoid and minimize the impact, degradation or harm to performance and operations of their system.
Sony reserves the right to refuse and terminate the program as needed.

Within the last 90 days, Sony already received 120 reports, 88 reports resolved, and 41 hackers joining the program. An estimated total of $170,000 was already paid on bug hunters.

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