The Senate has voted unanimously in favor of a bill that would establish a bug bounty pilot program to strengthen cyber defense at the Department of Homeland Security.Sen. Maggie Hassan’s (D-N.H.) office said Wednesday the Hack DHS Act would offer payments for white-hat hackers to identify vulnerabilities in the department’s information technology network and data systems.
The bipartisan bill mandates that DHS launch an effort similar to the Defense Department‘s bug bounty program and requires background checks for participants.
DHS manages the security of .gov domains and U.S. critical infrastructure.
Hassan introduced the bill with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., serve as co-sponsors for the bill.
