19 November 2013
Microsoft is paying out its first $100,000 (£63,000) "bounty" after a London hacking expert found security holes in Windows 8. LSA alumnus James Forshaw, now a computer vulnerability researcher, discovered a new way to attack the flagship operating system. Potentially putting billions of users at risk.
Microsoft said it could not go into details until it had come up with a solution, but said it was "thrilled" to pay out the reward. In a published blog the company said finding out about the new "mitigation bypass technique" would help it protect users against a whole new class of attacks.
"Congratulations and well done," wrote Microsoft security expert Katie Moussoris."You not only made history by receiving a total of $109,400 from our bounty programs, you’re also helping us make our customers safer from entire classes of attack. On behalf of over a billion people worldwide - Thank you and way to go!!"
We at LSA couldn't agree more! Congratulations to James on such an amazing achievment!
