Facebook announced today that it is upping its commitment towards internet security with larger awards in 2015 for winners of the Internet Defense Prize.
DDoS attacks and user data theft are becoming increasingly common on the Web, with black-hat hackers around the world taking a stab at penetrating servers from top companies and popular online service providers that have large user bases. This puts both users and companies at risk of identity theft, harassment and financial loss.
A statement issued by Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan outlines the social network’s increased commitment towards the cause: Facebook will offer up to $300,000 in awards in 2015 for winners of the Internet Defense Prize. Working with USENIX, an association for advanced computing and a leader in security research to judge academic researchers’ submissions of working prototypes of their ideas to tighten online security.
The first Internet Defense Prize was awarded this August to researchers Johannes Dahse and Thorsten Holz from Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany. They were awarded $50,000 for their work in detecting ‘second-order vulnerabilities’ in Web apps.
Entries will begin to be accepted soon on the IDP website, and the winners will be announced at the 24th USENIX Security Symposium from August 12-15 2015, in Washington, D.C.
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