Microsoft shells out $100,000 for Windows bug-finder bounty

October 12, 2013

The security researcher who yesterday was awarded $100,000 by Microsoft spent about two weeks pondering, then demonstrating a new way to circumvent Windows' defensive technologies. In an interview, James Forshaw, the head of vulnerability research at U.K.-based Context Information Security, described in the most general terms the work that resulted in the big bounty. "When Microsoft announced the initial bounties, I first thought about the mitigations I wanted to go over." said Forshaw. "Windows has a lot of mitigating in place, so I started to brainstorm. I asked myself, 'How would I do it [if I was a cyber criminal]?'" From start to finish—from those brainstorming sessions to an exploit that proved his mitigation bypass approach worked—Forshaw said he spent about half a month on the project. "From my initial thought to a full working proof of concept was about two weeks," he said. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2054376/microsoft-shells-out-100-000-for-windows-bug-finder-bounty.html#tk.rss_all