- Google has announced that they are winding down the Google Play Security Reward Program.
- The program was introduced in late 2017 to incentivize security researchers to find and responsibly disclose vulnerabilities in popular Android apps.
- Google says they’re winding down the program due to a decrease in actionable vulnerabilities reported by security researchers.
Security vulnerabilities are lurking in most of the apps you use on a day-to-day basis; there’s just no way for most companies to preemptively fix every possible security issue because of human error, deadlines, lack of resources, and a multitude of other factors. That’s why many organizations run bug bounty programs to get external help with fixing these issues. The Google Play Security Reward Program (GPSRP) is an example of a bug bounty program that paid security researchers to find vulnerabilities in popular Android apps, but it’s being shut down later this month.
Google announced the Google Play Security Reward Program back in October 2017 as a way to incentivize security searchers to find and, most importantly, responsibly disclose vulnerabilities in popular Android apps distributed through the Google Play Store.