Hackers’ Delight: 1 Million Miles for Reporting United Airlines Security Flaws
Now here’s a rewards program Julian Assange could love. United Airlines has confirmed that it paid 1 million frequent flier miles each to two hackers who found serious flaws and security breaches in its computer systems.
Related: Millions of Samsung Galaxy Phones May Be Vulnerable to Hackers
This past May, United started a “bug bounty” program to find loopholes in its security, but it’s hardly the first corporate entity to do so. Google, Facebook and Yahoo all offer rewards or incentives to hackers who report bugs to them privately. Netscape engineer Jarrett Ridlinghafer is largely credited with coming up with the concept of rewarding good, or “white hat,” hackers for trouble-shooting in 1995.
Jordan Wiens, founder of cybersecurity company Vector 35, was one of two winners to claim a million airline miles for his prize. He posted a screenshot of his mileage account on Twitter. (He submitted the bug on May 15, got a response on May 19, a validation notice on June 24 and then the payout on July 10.) A second bug he reported won a lesser prize of 250,000 miles. Kyle Lovett from Montgomery, Calif., was the other million-mile winner. Lovett Tweeted that he will use some of the miles to fly out his mother and brother to California.
Wow! @united really paid out! Got a million miles for my bug bounty submissions! Very cool. pic.twitter.com/CEclmhmyUq
— Jordan Wiens (@psifertex) July 10, 2015
No doubt the airline saved a ton of money in preventing computer issues. In recent months United has had to ground it flights twice as a result of computer system glitches. On June 2, an automation issue affected 150 flights, or 8 percent of its morning schedule. On July 8, a network connectivity issue due to a router malfunction locked up its reservations system and grounded thousands of flights worldwide.
Looks like the airline has more miles to dole out, too: Twitter was full of happy pronouncement from hackers claiming smaller prizes and begging Delta to do the same.
Small Business Owners Say They’re Raising Worker Pay
A record percentage of small business owners say they are raising pay for their workers, according to the latest monthly jobs report from the National Federation of Independent Business, based on a survey of 10,000 of the group’s members. A seasonally adjusted net 35 percent of small businesses say they are increasing compensation. “They are increasing compensation at record levels and are continuing to hire,” NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan said in a statement accompanying the report. “Post tax reform, concerns about taxes and regulations are taking a backseat to their worries over filling open positions and finding qualified candidates.”
The US Is Running Short on More Than 200 Drugs
The U.S. is officially running short on 202 drugs, including some medical staples like epinephrine, morphine and saline solution. “The medications most vulnerable to running short have a few things in common: They are generic, high-volume, and low-margin for their makers—not the cutting-edge specialty drugs that pad pharmaceutical companies’ bottom lines,” Fortune’s Erika Fry reports. “Companies have little incentive to make the workhorse drugs we use most.” And much of the problem — “The situation is an emergency waiting to be a disaster,” one pharmacist says — can be tied to one company: Pfizer. Read the full story here.
Chart of the Day: Could You Handle a Sudden $400 Expense?
More Americans say they are living comfortably or at least “doing okay” financially, according to the Federal Reserve’s Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2017. At the same time, four in 10 adults say that, if faced with an unexpected expense of $400, they would not be able to cover it or would cover it by selling something or borrowing money. That represents an improvement from 2013, when half of all adults said they would have trouble handling such an expense, but suggests that many Americans are still close to the edge when it comes to their personal finances.
Kevin Brady Introduces Welfare Reform Bill
The Tax Policy Center’s Daily Deduction reports that Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday introduced The Jobs and Opportunity with Benefits and Services (JOBS) for Success Act (H.R. 5861). “The bill would rename the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and target benefits to the lowest-income households. Although the House GOP leadership promised to include an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit as part of an upcoming welfare reform bill, this measure does not appear to include any EITC provisions.” The committee will mark up the bill on Wednesday.