Industry News

Microsoft will award $200,000 to the computer security innovator who designs the best new technology to mitigate memory safety vulnerabilities, the technology company recently announced.

In launching the BlueHat Prize competition at this week's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Matt Thomlinson, general manager of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, said he hopes the contest will shift researchers' focus from troubleshooting bugs to innovating systemic solutions to defend against entire attack classes, such as all the types of intrusions that exploit memory vulnerabilities.

A panel of Microsoft security experts will judge submissions, which are due by April 1, 2012. Microsoft specifies the winning entry must make a significant impact against threats, be difficult for hackers to work around, and operate in a practical manner. The winner will be announced at next year's Black Hat conference.

The contest winner will receive a $200,000 cash prize, and the second- and third-place contestants will receive cash and prizes valued at $50,000.

Facebook recently began paying "bug bounties" to freelance researchers who discover and report individual security vulnerabilities affecting the social media website, joining other tech companies like Google and Mozilla. Google has paid out $300,000 in bounties since its program began last year, a spokesperson told PCWorld.