In a blog post on June 24, 2020, Sony announced that they were launching a PlayStation Bug Bounty program. I think I've been playing too much Animal Crossing lately, because my first thought was along the lines of "Will they pay me 1.5x more than Nook's Cranny for my bugs, too?" Anyway.

Seriously, wake your brain up woman. Wrong kind of bugs.

"We believe that through working with the security research community we can deliver a safer place to play," Geoff Norton, senior director of software engineering at SIE,  said in the post. "We have partnered with HackerOne to help run this program, and we are inviting the security research community, gamers, and anyone else to test the security of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Network. Our bug bounty program has rewards for various issues, including critical issues on PS4. Critical vulnerabilities for PS4 have bounties starting at $50,000."

The exact details of the program are listed on the HackerOne page, but some of the bounties are pretty steep. Finding vulnerabilities in the PlayStation Network could pay out anywhere from $100 for low severity vulnerabilities and all the way up to $3,000 for critical vulnerabilities. PlayStation 4 vulnerabilities will pay out $500 for low severity vulnerabilities, while critical vulnerabilities have bounties starting at $50,000.

This program only applies to PlayStation 4 - the PS1, 2, and Vita are all not included. It seems a little strange to be offering this program now in the wake of the PS5 coming out soon, but I suppose if they can find vulnerabilities in this system, they can better correct and prepare for their next one.

This program was previously only available to private researchers, but is now public. If you're into breaking things and want to make some extra cash while you do so, this might be something worth playing around with. According to the stats on HackerOne, Sony has already paid out $173,900 in bounties. In addition, 102 reports have been submitted, 88 reports have been resolved, and 41 bug-finders have been thanked.

Have you ever encountered a major system bug while playing on a console?