Astra and BI.ZONE will look for vulnerabilities in the domestic operating system

The Russian developer of the Astra operating system will launch a program to search for vulnerabilities (bug bounty) in their solutions. The partner will be the BI.ZONE company, which develops information security systems. Astra will pay bughunters for identifying unacceptable scenarios: depending on the severity level of the vulnerability, the amount of payment can reach 250,000 rubles, the most dangerous cases will be considered on an individual basis. Astra plans to extend the program to various security subsystems and products.

“We are ready to pay not just for the errors found, but for the implementation of unacceptable events,” said Ilya Sivtsev, General Director of Astra Group. “Our company has deployed secure development processes, but it is important for us to identify problems that can lead to negative consequences in the customer’s infrastructure.”

As Vedomosti wrote in March, the adoption of the bill on white hackers may be delayed. The initiative has been publicly discussed since the summer of 2022. At that time, the Ministry of Digital Development began to study the possibility of introducing the concept of bug bounty (searching for vulnerabilities in software for a fee) into the legal field. The movement of the bill was complicated due to the position of the FSB and the FSTEC (Federal Service for Technical and Export Control), which are reluctant to liberalize the provisions of the Criminal Code.

In April, Vladimir Bengin, director of the Cybersecurity Department of the Ministry of Digital Development, said that there are very few “white” pentester hackers in Russia today, and the existing teams were inundated with orders, so the business launched new training programs for such specialists.