• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechPentagon

Calling All Hackers: ‘Hack the Pentagon’ Is Now Open

Robert Hackett
By
Robert Hackett
Robert Hackett
Down Arrow Button Icon
Robert Hackett
By
Robert Hackett
Robert Hackett
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 31, 2016, 6:30 PM ET
Defense Secretary Ash Carter Announces New Quality Of Life Military Reforms
ARLINGTON, VA - JANUARY 28: U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announces new regulations that the military hopes will increase retention of troops that want to have families while preserving readiness during a news conference at the Pentagon January 28, 2016 in Arlington, Virginia. In a move to make the military 'a family friendly employer,' Carter announced that all women in the military will have 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, men will be given 14 days of paid paternity leave, and the start of a pilot program to help troops freeze eggs and sperm for future use. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images

Ready your keyboards, hackers.

The Pentagon has opened registration for its pilot computer bug bounty program. The United States Department of Defense will pay people in return for the vulnerabilities they find in its public facing websites.

Many top tech companies including Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), and Facebook (FB)—but notably not Apple (AAPL)—already run bug bounty programs of their own. However, this is the first of its kind for the federal government.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

“This initiative will put the department’s cybersecurity to the test in an innovative, but responsible way,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement. (Carter first announced the initiative at the RSA Conference, a cybersecurity industry confab held earlier this month.) “I encourage hackers who want to bolster our digital defenses to join the competition and take their best shot,” he said.

The government has history of debuting infamously buggy websites, spanning from faulty online tools at the IRS, to the disaster at healthcare.gov. By incentivizing hackers to find flaws before they cause a crisis, the defense department could begin to nip such problems in the bud.

For more on hacking, watch:

The department did not disclose the sum of bounty payouts, although it said that it would draw from a pool of $150,000 in funding set aside for rewards. The competition officially begins April 18 and extends through May 12.

The Defense Department has enlisted HackerOne—a bug bounty startup that spun out of Facebook, and that runs similar programs for Twitter (TWTR), Adobe (ADBE), Yahoo (YHOO), and most recently Uber—to manage the pilot.

Hack the Pentagon Bug Bounty Program Launches on HackerOne https://t.co/D4xZz8dBq8 @martenmickos pic.twitter.com/LjUA8PTi1v

— HackerOne (@Hacker0x01) March 31, 2016

The department said it will screen anyone who submits a valid computer bug report. Participants will be able opt out of that criminal background check, the department said, adding that they will also forfeit any potential reward.

About the Author
Robert Hackett
By Robert Hackett
Instagram iconLinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Success
In 2026, many employers are ditching merit-based pay bumps in favor of ‘peanut butter raises’
By Emma BurleighFebruary 2, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
'I just don't have a good feeling about this': Top economist Claudia Sahm says the economy quietly shifted and everyone's now looking at the wrong alarm
By Eleanor PringleJanuary 31, 2026
4 days ago
placeholder alt text
Cybersecurity
Top AI leaders are begging people not to use Moltbook, a social media platform for AI agents: It’s a ‘disaster waiting to happen’
By Eva RoytburgFebruary 2, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Monday, February 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerFebruary 2, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Future of Work
‘You’re not a hero, you’re a liability’: Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary warns Gen Z founders to stop glorifying hustle culture
By Jacqueline MunisFebruary 2, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Future of Work
Ford CEO has 5,000 open mechanic jobs with up to 6-figure salaries from the shortage of manually skilled workers: 'We are in trouble in our country'
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJanuary 31, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Latest in Tech

AIAmazon
Amazon AWS CEO Matt Garman pushes back against Elon Musk’s space data centers plan
By Alexei OreskovicFebruary 3, 2026
1 hour ago
broker
AIMarkets
Oracle defused ‘the key risk going into 2026,’ BofA argues, but the market isn’t buying it
By Nick Lichtenberg and Eva RoytburgFebruary 3, 2026
4 hours ago
Image of Moltbook app logo on a smart phone with another image of the Moltbook logo in the background.
AIEye on AI
Moltbook is scary—but not for the reasons so many headlines said
By Jeremy KahnFebruary 3, 2026
4 hours ago
Aerial image of the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., off the coast of Rhode Island.
EnergyRenewables
Trump hates the way wind farms look. Too bad, America’s court system says
By Tristan BoveFebruary 3, 2026
6 hours ago
Moltbook image.
AIChatbots
In Moltbook hysteria, former top Facebook researcher sees echoes of 2017 panic over bots building a ‘secret language’
By Jeremy KahnFebruary 3, 2026
7 hours ago
two men smile in front of the camera
CryptoCryptocurrency
Kairos, which is building a cross-platform tool for prediction markets traders, raises $2.5 million from a16z crypto
By Carlos GarciaFebruary 3, 2026
10 hours ago