Cybersecurity spotlight on bug bounty researcher @Ammar Askar

GitHub's Bug Bounty Program, a key component of its security strategy for nine years, is spotlighted during Cybersecurity Awareness Month, featuring prominent researcher Ammar Askar. Askar, known for uncovering privilege escalation and authentication/access control bugs, shares insights from his journey, which began with modding Minecraft and progressed through playing Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions. The program rewards researchers for identifying vulnerabilities in GitHub's vast ecosystem, having distributed over $3.8 million in rewards since 2016 through HackerOne. Askar emphasizes the importance of understanding complex systems to discover bugs, citing his experience with CVE-2023-23761 as an example. He advocates for practical experimentation and continual learning from available resources like PortSwigger’s WebSecurity Academy. GitHub encourages collaboration with the security community, offering incentives such as a Bug Bounty Merch Shop, and invites interested individuals to explore open roles to further secure its platform and products.