Microsoft awards over $100,000 to expert for finding bugs

Microsoft Corp

James Forshaw, who heads vulnerability research at London-based security consulting firm Context Information Security, won Microsoft's first $100,000 bounty for identifying a new "exploitation technique" in Windows, which will allow it to develop defenses against an entire class of attacks, the software maker said on Tuesday.

Microsoft bounties

Forshaw earned another $9,400 for identifying security bugs in a preview release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 11 browser, Katie Moussouris, senior security strategist with Microsoft Security Response Center, said in a blog.

Microsoft unveiled the rewards programs four months ago to bolster efforts to prevent sophisticated attackers from subverting new security technologies in its software, which runs on the vast majority of the world's personal computers. Forshaw has also won a similar award from Hewlett-Packard Co

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Reuters