Facebook offers rewards to security bug hunters

Facebook began offering rewards of $500 or more on Friday to security researchers who identify vulnerabilities in the social network. "To show our appreciation for our security researchers, we offer a monetary bounty for certain qualifying security bugs," Facebook said in a blog post. Security researchers who are the "first person to responsibly disclose" a bug that could "compromise the integrity or privacy of Facebook user data" would be eligible for a bounty of $500, Facebook said. "Our security team will assess each bug to determine if qualifies," Facebook said. The Palo Alto, California-based social networking titan said a typical bounty was $500 but it "may increase the reward for specific bugs." Facebook last month hired George Hotz, a celebrated hacker known as "GeoHot," but has not disclosed what he is doing for the company. Hotz was sued by Sony for hacking the Japanese company's PlayStation 3 game console and is credited with being the first person to go public with a way to hack into an iPhone.