The US Air Force is gearing up to launch its first ever bug bounty program. In other words, you'll soon have the opportunity to legally hack the Air Force — and potentially make some money in the process.
Registration for the "Hack the Air Force" event opens May 15 on the HackerOne website. Participants will have the opportunity to hack some of the Air Force's "key public websites" during the contest, which kicks off on May 30 and ends June 23. This isn't just an opportunity for US-based white hats: Citizens from the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are also allowed to participate.
"This is the first time the [Air Force] has opened up our networks to such a broad scrutiny," Air Force Chief Information Security Officer Peter Kim said in a statement. "We have malicious hackers trying to get into our systems every day. It will be nice to have friendly hackers taking a shot and, most importantly, showing us how to improve our cybersecurity and defense posture."
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Those who report qualifying vulnerabilities will be "rewarded for their contributions," according to a HackerOne post announcing the program. The Air Force has not announced specific prize totals.
The new initiative comes after the federal government in April 2016 launched its first ever bug bounty program: "Hack the Pentagon." More than 1,400 hackers registered to participate in the program and submitted nearly 200 vulnerability reports within six hours of its launch. The Defense Department ended up paying out $75,000 in bounties to participating hackers.
"This outside approach—drawing on the talent and expertise of our citizens and partner-nation citizens — in identifying our security vulnerabilities will help bolster our cybersecurity," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein said in a statement. "We already aggressively conduct exercises and 'red team' our public facing and critical websites. But this next step throws open the doors and brings additional talent onto our cyber team."