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Companies of all sizes are recognizing and paying individuals to report software security problems in the company’s products in what are called bug bounty programs. The deal typically is contingent on the individual not actually hacking the company and not disclosing the issue to the public, at least before the company has a chance to patch the problem. This is a marked departure from the concept of treating software engineer’s darker arts as a form of heresy and hackers as an evil to be dealt with by law enforcement. Hackers, or bounty hunters, are now being leveraged to fix the nation’s and global business sector’s security.