TikTok is going through a difficult phase with facing bans from countries like India, Pakistan, and Indonesia, and an ongoing battle with the US government already. It seems that the Chinese, short-form video-sharing app has a lot on its plate at the moment. But instead of wallowing in the pits of despair, TikTok seems to be fighting like a true warrior on the battlefield!
To make its image better, TikTok has been quite busy in partnering with several platforms, like OpenSlate to ensure ads and brand safety on its platform. Now, it has announced to begin a partnership bug-bounty program with HackerOne. This bug bounty program is an expansion of an already running vulnerability disclosure program.
In a blogpost, TikTok has explained its motive by saying that this bug bounty program and this partnership with HackerOne will help the company to gain insight from the topmost security researchers, experts, academic scholars, and a lot of other independent people who are capable of detecting bugs and vulnerabilities while making $50 to around $15000, depending on the type and severity of the flaw. This bounty program will help TikTok to provide better app security to its millions of users and will prevent potential threats from harming the app and its users.
This is not the first time that TikTok has sought help from security and research companies. Previously also, TikTok has taken such measures to ensure the security of its platform from cyberattacks. Apart from TikTok, many other tech companies have time and again taken help from security companies and have introduced bug bounty programs like this. These programs give an incentive to security researchers and other independent experts, and when many brilliant brains work in this way, different types of vulnerabilities can be caught, and taken care of promptly. Many times, a company’s own security team is unable to find and fix an insidious bug, but one of these independent researchers can find it and help the company get rid of it as well. So, it is a situation that benefits everyone.
TikTok is currently fighting a legal battle against the ban that the US government has planned to impose on the app’s downloads in the US app stores. Just recently, a federal judge has temporarily stopped the US government to continue with the implementation of this ban. This announcement from TikTok about its bug-bounty partnership program is just going to straighten its image in front of the world. So, it is an aptly timed step and highly appreciable.
To make its image better, TikTok has been quite busy in partnering with several platforms, like OpenSlate to ensure ads and brand safety on its platform. Now, it has announced to begin a partnership bug-bounty program with HackerOne. This bug bounty program is an expansion of an already running vulnerability disclosure program.
In a blogpost, TikTok has explained its motive by saying that this bug bounty program and this partnership with HackerOne will help the company to gain insight from the topmost security researchers, experts, academic scholars, and a lot of other independent people who are capable of detecting bugs and vulnerabilities while making $50 to around $15000, depending on the type and severity of the flaw. This bounty program will help TikTok to provide better app security to its millions of users and will prevent potential threats from harming the app and its users.
This is not the first time that TikTok has sought help from security and research companies. Previously also, TikTok has taken such measures to ensure the security of its platform from cyberattacks. Apart from TikTok, many other tech companies have time and again taken help from security companies and have introduced bug bounty programs like this. These programs give an incentive to security researchers and other independent experts, and when many brilliant brains work in this way, different types of vulnerabilities can be caught, and taken care of promptly. Many times, a company’s own security team is unable to find and fix an insidious bug, but one of these independent researchers can find it and help the company get rid of it as well. So, it is a situation that benefits everyone.
TikTok is currently fighting a legal battle against the ban that the US government has planned to impose on the app’s downloads in the US app stores. Just recently, a federal judge has temporarily stopped the US government to continue with the implementation of this ban. This announcement from TikTok about its bug-bounty partnership program is just going to straighten its image in front of the world. So, it is an aptly timed step and highly appreciable.
Photo: Anjum Naveed/AP
