Companies often use bug bounties to find holes in the security of their digital services or products. A bug bounty is a program in which a company offers a reward to individuals who find gaps or vulnerabilities in their security. It is an effective, economical, and non-engaging way to keep products secured.
With all these benefits, you may be asking yourself, “Can the same system be used to find functional bugs as well?” The answer is yes, and in fact, it can be an excellent way to maintain your product’s quality. It is called a functional bug bounty.
When should I use a functional bug bounty?
A functional bug bounty program is ideal for companies with high, ongoing goals for quality. This is usually achieved through continuous testing. Continuous testing is essential for companies with large digital products because testing everything on every device is nearly impossible. Therefore, companies often spread out their testing budget consistently over the year, by offer bug bounties at specific times.
What are the benefits of a functional bug bounty?
A bug bounty program has many other benefits as well. Opening testing up to everyone through a bug bounty program is an excellent way to:
- tap into a large pool of devices
- test in a variety of environments
- find a variety of different skilled testers
How do you create a functional bug bounty program?
It’s essential to keep your functional bug bounty program organized well to make it as effective and worthwhile as possible. A function bug bounty system should have an organized system of how bugs are documented, repaired, and paid for. Here are the steps to take to properly set up a bug bounty program:
1. Decide who you will open up your bounty program to (the general public or specific bounty hunters that already have experience).
2. Lay out the explicit parameters of the bounty program (where exactly testers can look for bugs).
3. Specify what exactly constitutes as a bug and what doesn’t.
4. Structure the reward system (how much is paid for each type of bug).
5. Specify the amount of evidence bounty hunters must provide as evidence for their bug (documentation, screenshots, etc).
6. Select team members to follow up with the submissions of the bounty hunters and send out the rewards.
If you don’t want to go it alone, bug bounty programs can be outsourced and monitored for you. StarDust, for example, can set up the structure of the program, manage the submissions, and make sure that the same bug isn’t paid for twice.
Finally, remember that a bug bounty program should not be your principle testing approach. Your digital service should be thoroughly tested beforehand, and the bug bounty program should be used to sweep up rest. With a bug bounty program you can rest assured that your digital product will be as close to flawless as possible.
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