Cybersecurity platform, buglab, is swooping in with their white-hat-hacker capes to protect small- to medium-sized businesses from potentially devastating attacks.

The buglab solution detects and remedies vulnerabilities on various business applications, websites, mobile applications, IoT devices, and smart contracts by transforming penetration test services into challenges, referred to as contests. These contests are geared towards a community of independent information security consultants with certified qualifications.

The buglab solution was sparked from a rise in cybercrime. The current reality is that cybercrime is a growing concern for anyone who owns a device equipped with Internet capability. Seeing as that’s virtually every single person you know, except maybe your grandmother, we should all have cause for concern when it comes to cybercrime.

According to a press release by leading research and advisory company, Gartner, the use of IoT (Internet of things) devices is on the rise. In fact, Gartner forecasts that 20.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide by 2020. Driving the market, we have Greater China, North America, and Western Europe representing 67 per cent of the overall IoT installation base for 2017.

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Everyday tech consumers are the largest users of connected things, with 5.2 billion units installed in 2017. Businesses follow closely at 3.1 billion units.

Consumers may be purchasing more devices, but Gartner says businesses are spending more money on IoT devices.

“In 2017, in terms of hardware spending, the use of connected things among businesses will drive $964 billion. Consumer applications will amount to $725 billion in 2017. By 2020, hardware spending from both segments will reach almost $3 trillion,” reads the Gartner press release. The results are presented in the following table.

IoT Endpoint Spending by Category (Millions of Dollars) Photo credit: Gartner.

Although the Internet makes our lives easier in a lot of different ways, it also opens us up to cybercrime. Specifically, small- to medium-sized businesses are a hacker’s delight. Stifled by tight budgets and limited cybercrime awareness, it can be difficult for these companies to protect themselves against hackers, pinning hard-working entrepreneurs as an easy target.

Fortunately, France-based buglab, has found a way to protect businesses and their online assets.

Buglab is a cybersecurity crowdsourcing platform that will run on blockchain technology. The company plans to organize penetration tests, also known as “contests,” for various businesses using Internet-capable devices. If a business utilizing mobile applications, other IoT devices, websites, or even blockchain-based applications (such as smart contracts) then buglab will effectively highlight and remedy any threatening vulnerabilities on an Internet-based hardware.

In other words, buglab will hack you first, so you don’t get hacked by the bad guys down the road.

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Here’s how buglab works

The contests work by inviting a community of trusted and professional cybersecurity pentesters to find vulnerabilities on your websites, mobile apps, IoT devices, and smart contracts; essentially, any of your Internet-capable devices. After a lengthy vetting process by buglab, the pentesters will sift through the devices of your choosing, detecting and fixing vulnerabilities.

“The buglab methodology links organizations that have information security needs, which is just about all of them, with a community of certified cybersecurity penetration testers in an incentivized environment, where testers are rewarded when they uncover system vulnerabilities, ranked by severity and potential impacts. It’s done as a race against time,” states the buglab white paper, which will be released to public in early January.

The buglab platform enables companies to either use a mass of pentesters from the extensive community, or choose a validated team from a known company. More to that point, a variety of customizations that meet your company’s specific organizational needs are expected to be available in the near future.

Some of the key features that will be available to companies include the following:

Public contest: Companies outline their contest stipulations and invite the larger community to participate in the competition.

Private contest: Companies also have the option of choosing a select number of pentesters from the community, or choose a validated team from a known cybersecurity firm to complete the challenge.

Selection filters: During a private contest, companies have the option of selecting pentesters using different filters. For example, you may choose pentesters by country, score, skill set, area, etc.

Fix companion: At the Enterprise level, buglab will verify that the fix has been implemented by exploiting the vulnerability again. Once confirmed as fixed, a buglab team of analysts will update the status accordingly in the platform.

Photo credit: buglab content.

Beyond the fundamentals, check out the other ways buglab will protect your business.

Vigilante Protocol: This program is an open reporting system that enables both experts (known as white-hat hackers), and anonymous users to report vulnerabilities to companies that are not using buglab’s services. Essentially, the program sustains a community where members can share information in a secure, legal, and ethical way.

Simplified billing: A system that ensures affordability and guarantees results. Services are provided at a fixed rate for all small- to medium-sized businesses, and in the event that no vulnerabilities are detected, buglab will refund your money.

Real-time vulnerability management: This feature allows clients to receive consistent and reliable updates on issues being detected. Businesses have the opportunity to follow contest progress, and communicate directly with pentesters.

Blockchain technology: A key feature offered by buglab that deploys expertise and smart contracts across the blockchain.

For anyone who doesn’t know, blockchain is a thread of digital records across which different types of data are stored. Together, these distributed (or decentralized) records make up a database similar to the pages of a large ledger book. These virtual ledgers are hosted across many servers, which helps verify and authenticate any given transaction. These transactions materialize in the form of tradable cryptocurrencies. In buglab’s case, the cryptocurrency will be the buglab token (BGL).

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Individuals will be able to access buglab services, as well as participate in contests, by using BGL. Companies will be able to purchase cybersecurity services with BGL, while pentesters and white-hat hackers will be rewarded for their participation in both the contests and the vigilante program.

Buglab’s advantages are leveraged off the blockchain, namely through the deployment of smart contracts that rely on distributed ledger technology. The result is a robust, secure, and acutely hack-resistant platform. In other words, buglab is a preventive and comprehensive, yet secure solution, to cyberattacks that are threatening your business.

There are many other intricate and fascinating details about the project that are just waiting to be explored! Be sure to stay tuned for website and white paper updates, as well as project information. In the meantime, follow the buglab team on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.