Pornhub Offers Hackers $25,000 To Find Security Flaws In Its Website

Pornhub has followed in the steps of Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook by launching a so-called bug bounty program, inviting researchers to find and report vulnerabilities in its website that could be exploited by criminals.

In beta testing for some time, the program is now open to everyone through HackerOne, a company that coordinates bug bounty programs, and Pornhub is offering rewards of between $50 and $25,000, depending on the severity of the flaw found.

“Like other major tech players have been doing as of late, we’re tapping some of the most talented security researchers as a proactive and precautionary measure — in addition to our dedicated developer and security teams — to ensure not only the security of our site but that of our users, which is paramount to us,” Corey Price, vice president at Pornhub, said in a press release.

Pornhub is one of the most popular pornographic video-sharing websites with 60 million daily visitors, and is ranked as the 55th most visited website in the U.S., according to Alexa. As a result of its popularity, it has been the victim of several cyberattacks in recent years, most of which have used malicious ads — a technique known as malvertising — on the site as vectors to infect the computers of visitors.

In September, security researcher Jerome Segura from Malwarebytes reported that Pornhub — together with rival YouPorn — had become the latest adult website to become a victim of malvertising when criminals inserted malicious ads through a third-party advertising network. Pornhub responded quickly to the problem, limiting the exposure of its users to the malware.