Technology giants are handing out record payouts to stay-at-home hackers who spot bugs in their products according to industry insiders.

The average award for critical vulnerabilities increased 33pc to $20,000 (£15,000), according to HackerOne, a bug bounty platform that connects companies with ethical hackers.

The company, which enlists hackers from around the world, said that 116 critical vulnerabilities discoveries were rewarded with $10,000 payouts in the past year, a reflection of both the growing threat and the price companies are willing to pay for crowd-sourced cyber security.

Top earning hackers on the platform made almost three times the median salary of a software engineer in their home country, with some making 16 times more.

The US government along with Goldman Sachs, American Express and Toyota all offer a public bug bounty programme. Technology giants tend to offer the highest rewards in the six-figure range, with Intel and Microsoft offering up to $250,000 (£180,000), and Google and Apple offering up to $200,000 (£151,000).