Cybersecurity & Tech

Lawfare Daily: Katie Moussouris on Bug Bounties

Benjamin Wittes, Katie Moussouris, Jen Patja
Monday, August 12, 2024, 8:00 AM
What is the role of bug bounties in cybersecurity?

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

Lawfare Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittes sits down with Katie Moussouris of Luta Security to talk bug bounties. Where do they come from? What is their proper role in cybersecurity? What are they good for, and most importantly, what are they not good for? Moussouris was among the hackers who first did bug bounties at scale—for Microsoft, and then for the Pentagon. Now she helps companies set up bug bounty programs and is dismayed by how they are being used.

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Benjamin Wittes is editor in chief of Lawfare and a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of several books.
Katie Moussouris is the founder and CEO of a cybersecurity company called Luta Security. She also sit on three Federal cyber advisory boards: DHS/CISA’s Cyber Safety Review Board, NIST’s Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board, and Commerce’s Information Security Technical Advisory Council.
Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.

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