HackerOne's Mårten Mickos
Hacker-Powered Security
Mårten Mickos is one of the most respected members of the open source world. The former CEO of MySQL AB during its prime now serves as the CEO of HackerOne, a vulnerability coordination and bug bounty platform. I sat down with Mickos to understand HackerOne's purpose and his perspective on the security of open source software.
Mårten Mickos is one of the most respected members of the open source world. The former CEO of MySQL AB during its prime now serves as the CEO of HackerOne, a vulnerability coordination and bug bounty platform. I sat down with Mickos to understand HackerOne's purpose and his perspective on the security of open source software.
HackerOne's Role
In layman's terms, HackerOne brings the hacker community to an organization to hack into their code in search of vulnerabilities. As Mickos said, "Sometimes we joke that if you are going to be hacked anyway, it's better to get hacked by someone you can trust." HackerOne has built a platform for secure intelligence report sharing and payment, along with a reputation system for hackers.
When an organization announces a bug bounty program through HackerOne, the hacker community starts looking at the organization's code and filing their reports. The platform enables the bug bounty program's organizer to vet these vulnerabilities. The hacker who filed the report gets rewarded.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Zorin OS 18 Hits over a Million Downloads
If you doubt Linux isn't gaining popularity, you only have to look at Zorin OS's download numbers.
-
TUXEDO Computers Scraps Snapdragon X1E-Based Laptop
Due to issues with a Snapdragon CPU, TUXEDO Computers has cancelled its plans to release a laptop based on this elite hardware.
-
Debian Unleashes Debian Libre Live
Debian Libre Live keeps your machine free of proprietary software.
-
Valve Announces Pending Release of Steam Machine
Shout it to the heavens: Steam Machine, powered by Linux, is set to arrive in 2026.
-
Happy Birthday, ADMIN Magazine!
ADMIN is celebrating its 15th anniversary with issue #90.
-
Another Linux Malware Discovered
Russian hackers use Hyper-V to hide malware within Linux virtual machines.
-
TUXEDO Computers Announces a New InfinityBook
TUXEDO Computers is at it again with a new InfinityBook that will meet your professional and gaming needs.
-
SUSE Dives into the Agentic AI Pool
SUSE becomes the first open source company to adopt agentic AI with SUSE Enterprise Linux 16.
-
Linux Now Runs Most Windows Games
The latest data shows that nearly 90 percent of Windows games can be played on Linux.
-
Fedora 43 Has Finally Landed
The Fedora Linux developers have announced their latest release, Fedora 43.

