United reports on its website that it has established what it calls a “Bug Bounty” program. (Makes me think of the A&E reality show “Dog the Bounty Hunter” for some reason.”
The airline says, “We are committed to protecting our customers’ privacy and the personal data we receive from them, which is why we are offering a bug bounty program — the first of its kind within the airline industry.”
As ZDNet.com reports companies like United want to stop hackers as quickly as possible. Otherwise, once they find flaws the information can be sold or exploited for personal gain. Hacking into an airline’s miles reward system could guarantee you free world travel. As ZDNet adds, “If they choose to use system security flaws as an entry point into corporate networks, they may be able to steal valuable data and damage business systems — which in turn can be costly in both financial terms and reputation for victim companies.”
United says its “bug bounty program permits independent researchers to discover and report issues that affect the confidentiality, integrity and/or availability of customer or company information and rewards them for being the first to discover a bug.”
Different mileage awards are given dependent on severity. You could receive anywhere from 50,000 up to 1,000,000 miles. As a frequent flyer, I drool slightly at the thought of one million miles being in my account (but in full disclosure I am not a United frequent flyer).
United lays out the eligibility requirements. “To ensure that submissions and payouts are fair and relevant, the following eligibility requirements and guidelines apply to all researchers submitting bug reports,” the site says:
The last one is interesting. It has me thinking United doesn’t want to reward vendors who messed up in the first place. But what’s to stop a coder from realizing a mistake and suggesting a fix to a friend? You know, what they call an accomplice in the underworld.
That last one makes a lot of sense. After all, what’s to stop a dishonest IT type from hacking his or her account just to rack up the miles?
Of course, United has been under fire for devaluing its frequent flyer program. So, maybe those million miles aren’t going to do you as much as good as you might think. According to the website ThePointsGuy.com (which tracks these kinds of things), points out “United sure did a number on its award chart early last year … In late 2013, United announced it would be increasing the price of award ticket redemptions significantly, especially when booking seats in premium cabins on Star Alliance and other partner airlines.”