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Microsoft has increased the cash price rewards for researchers discovering vulnerabilities in the Copilot environment. How would $30,000 suit you right now?
AI bug bounties are becoming increasingly popular as artificial intelligence seeps into every aspect of life. It is an adjustment that makes keeping environments secure more important than ever, and researchers and ethical hackers who find vulnerabilities will see increased financial rewards and payouts.
It comes as DeepSeek AI has controversies over data leaks, and even ChatGPT is not immune from security issues.
Techopedia speaks to researchers and bug bounty teams about the skills needed to be a bug basher.
Key Takeaways
- Microsoft has expanded its Copilot Bug Bounty Program, increasing rewards up to $30,000 for security vulnerabilities.
- It is the start of a new trend of AI bug bounties as the new technology seeps into everyday life.
- Bug bounties are particularly useful for talented teens and young adults, who get to “think bad but do good.”
- Major tech companies, including OpenAI and Apple, are increasing bug bounty incentives.
Skills Needed to Win a Bug Bounty
The Microsoft Copilot (AI) Bounty Program has several updates. It now offers cash rewards ranging from $250 for low-risk vulnerabilities to up to $30,000 for high-risk vulnerabilities. We explore the Copilot categories further down.
Bug bounty programs are used by all major tech brands, from Apple to Google to OpenAI, and they aim to use the talent of ethical hackers, cybersecurity organizations, and independent security researchers.
The objective is to discover any weakness that a threat actor could exploit. AI joins what you might expect are the obvious candidates for attacks, such as desktop and mobile operating systems.
Once a vulnerability is found, companies can patch it up, ideally before it is exploited by threat actors. They are not always successful: in February 2025, Apple needed to rush out a security update across iPhones, iPads, and Macs after an exploit was found “in the wild” — aka, bad actors were using it.
So Bug bounty participants scan the digital attack surfaces of a company or new products for vulnerabilities, and ethical hackers have become an important line of defense in the modern digital threat landscape by thinking like cybercriminals do.
While researchers use many automated tools to find these weak entry points, a hacker mindset is essential.
Techopedia asked J. Stephen Kowski, Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) at SlashNext, the AI-powered security company, about other skills a hacker needs.
“A successful bug bounty hunter needs strong technical skills in web application security, network systems, penetration testing, and a deep understanding of common vulnerability types like injection attacks and authentication bypasses.”
Kowski explained that to maximize rewards in Microsoft’s program, researchers should be able to identify and document critical vulnerabilities with clear reproduction steps while following responsible disclosure guidelines.
“The program offers rewards from $250 to $30,000 based on severity and impact, making it accessible to beginners and experienced researchers who can demonstrate high-quality submissions,” Kowski added.
Casey Ellis, Founder of Bugcrowd, a San Francisco, California-based crowdsourced cybersecurity platform, also spoke to us about the skills needed to leave a mark at CopIlot.
“An increased focus on medium-severity issues, which is a move bounty programs can make to ‘widen the net’ of security researchers motivated by the reward, and the kinds of finding likely to be submitted,” Ellis said.
“Typical AppSec, API, and infrastructure security knowledge will be useful, and I suspect that individuals (or teams) with coding knowledge, an intuitive understanding of the use of AI, as well as an eye for business logic issues will perform well on this program.”
Microsoft Copilot Bug Bounty: New Program, New Rewards
Microsoft also increased price rewards for those discovering and disclosing moderate severity vulnerabilities.
Microsoft explained that they also added new Copilot products to the program. The company said:
“These changes are designed to enhance the program’s effectiveness, incentivize broader participation, and ensure that our Copilot consumer products remain robust, safe, and secure.”
Ethical hackers, researchers, and security companies can participate now in the following:
- Copilot AI experiences hosted on copilot.microsoft.com and copilot.ai (all major vendors are supported), including Copilot Pro.
- Copilot AI experiences integrated into Microsoft Edge (Windows), including Copilot Pro.
- Copilot AI experiences in the Microsoft Copilot Application (iOS and Android), including Copilot Pro.
- Copilot AI experiences integrated into the Windows OS via the Microsoft Copilot Application.
- Bing generative search hosted on bing.com (all major vendors are supported).
- Copilot AI experiences on WhatsApp and Telegram.
AI & Hacking: How to Skill Up and Level Up
Bug bounty programs have existed far longer than AI. And as the AI sector is undergoing a hyper-evolution, we are all still learning about its capabilities and impact on cybersecurity.
Additionally, as cybercriminals and threat actors begin to use AI, a deep understanding has become fundamental for pen-testers, security teams, and researchers.
As Kowski said:
“It takes a crowd to beat a crowd, especially when new technologies and potential exploitation techniques are involved.”
Kowski explained that companies like Microsoft are very early adopters, accepting and actively soliciting security feedback from as broad a talent pool as possible.
“They definitely understand this concept,” Kowski added.
How Bug Bounty Programs Help Young Hackers Avoid ‘Tripping into a Life of Crime’
Like life, things in cybersecurity are not always black and white. With hackers beginning to master their craft at very young ages — often between 15 to 18 — and looking to make money from their digital and computing skills, they can easily be lured by cyber criminal gangs who offer big payouts.
Techopedia recently covered the case of Evan Frederick Light, a 22-year-old man from Indiana who will spend his next 20 years in jail for hacking.
Ethical hacking organizations and bug bounty programs, like the new Microsoft Copilot program, can help redirect the younger population while offering new opportunities to succeed with their skills in honest ways.
We spoke to Kowski about this issue.
“This is one of my favorite aspects of working in this space,” Kowski said.
“It’s young people to end up in a place where their capabilities have outpaced the development of their moral compass and to essentially ‘trip over’ into a life of crime because of the opportunities available and the active recruiting done by cyber-criminal gangs.”
“Bug bounty creates a purely meritocratic and highly accessible on-ramp into a career where youths have the opportunity to ‘think bad, but do good’“.
The Bottom Line
Whether you are part of a security team, or an established or new ethical hacker, Microsoft´s Bug Bounty program for Copilot is definitely worth checking out.
Other organizations are constantly ramping up bug bounty projects. Most of them are featured at HackerOne.com.
From OpenAI to Apple, to more niche industry technologies, bug bounty programs are on the rise, and that is a good thing for everyone.
FAQs
What is Microsoft’s Copilot AI Bug Bounty Program?
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References
- A Hacker Stole OpenAI Secrets, Raising Fears That China Could, Too (The New York Times)
- Exciting updates to the Copilot (AI) Bounty Program: Enhancing security and incentivizing innovation (Microsoft Security Response Center)
- J Stephen Kowski, MSEE, JD – SlashNext (LinkedIn)
- Casey Ellis (Bugcrowd)
- Find and fix vulnerabilities faster (Bugcrowd)
- #1 Trusted Security Platform and Hacker Program (HackerOne)
