COMMENT: Cyber-crime remains a major automotive safety threat

Cars were integral to the first ever bug bounty program. In 1980, a company called Hunter & Ready launched the Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) real-time operating system—a technology that runs the Hubble Telescope. In 1983, they initiated the first ever known ‘bug bounty’ program, where they advertised in newspapers that if anyone could find a bug in the system, the company would remunerate them with a Volkswagen Beetle (or ‘Bug’). The newspaper advertisement clearly outlined the scope and process of reporting vulnerabilities the same way today’s huge tech corporations do on their websites or bug bounty platforms.