Bug Bounty Isn’t What You Think It Is By Tariq Davis I’m not a veteran bug bounty hunter. I’m a cybersecurity student who got curious about how people legally get paid to break systems. That curiosity pulled me into bug bounty, and the first thing I noticed was how messy the beginner information is. Most content either: assumes you already know what you’re doing, or turns simple ideas into overly technical theory. So I started building the kind of guide I wish I had when I began. No hype. No fake “make thousands overnight” promises. Just the actual framework. What Bug Bounty Actually Is Bug bounty programs are simple in concept: Companies pay independent researchers to find and responsibly disclose vulnerabilities in their systems. You: test systems that are in scope, find a vulnerability, write a report, submit it, and get paid if it’s valid. That’s the model. What makes it interesting is the incentive structure behind it. The company wants weaknesses discovered before malicious actors find them.…