New research from HackerOne has revealed that hackers believe the technology industry is the least secure industry.
The pen test and bug bounty platform collected data from over 3150 individuals who have successfully reported one or more valid security vulnerability on HackerOne, compiling it’s findings into the The 2020 Hacker Report. Of those polled, 18% said that the technology industry has the furthest to go to improve its cybersecurity, followed by government (16%) and finance (14%).
Interestingly, and despite the UK ICO recently publishing its intentions to hand out huge GDPR fines to high profile organizations within the travel and hospitality sector following data breaches, the research found that only 1% of hackers think the travel and hospitality industry has the most to do to improve its data security posture.
HackerOne also revealed that ethical hackers are increasingly treating hacking for good as a career option. According to the report, more than 50 hackers earned over $100,000 (£77,000) in 2019 from bug bounties, whilst the hacker community has doubled in size in the last year to more than 600,000 – representing 850 hackers registering every day in 2019.
“Hackers represent a global force for good, coming together to help address the growing security needs of our increasingly interconnected society,” said HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos. “The community welcomes all who enjoy the intellectual challenge to creatively overcome limitations. Their reasons for hacking may vary, but the results are consistently impressing the growing ranks of organizations embracing hackers through crowdsourced security — leaving us all a lot safer than before.”