The infamous Phineas Fisher is at it again, this time offering $100K bounty for any hacker that successfully conducts politically motivated hacks against companies that could lead to the disclosure of documents in the public interest–think WikiLeaks.
This “bug bounty” style approach is meant to encourage other hackers to launch their own hacktivist hacks.
It’s easy to forget that many-to-one multiple-solution crowdsourcing has worked for information offense for a LOT longer than we’ve been using it defensively in bug bounty. The incentive Phineas Fisher is offering is high enough that we can expect to see researchers compete for the winnings. How the hacktivist activity will play out, is anyone’s guess.