Internal Bug Bounty
- Customer
- Digitain
- Project manager on the customer side
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- IT Provider
- Digitain
- Year of project completion
- 2025
- Project timeline
- April, 2023 - May, 2025
- Project scope
- 400 man-hours
- Goals
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The primary goal of this initiative was to strengthen Digitain’s proactive threat detection and build a deeply ingrained security-first mindset across the organization. By pioneering Armenia’s first internal bug bounty program, the project aimed to transform the traditional approach to application security - from reactive vulnerability management to proactive, collaborative defense.
- Project Results
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Across the three internal bug bounty programs, the initiative delivered measurable progress in both security performance and organizational culture. The first bug bounty identified 38 vulnerabilities (0 critical, 3 high, 5 medium, 14 low, 16 very low), establishing a baseline for secure development awareness. The second program demonstrated a remarkable 63% overall reduction in findings - with low-severity issues decreasing by 64% and very-low-severity issues by 94% - while maintaining zero critical vulnerabilities. These results reflected stronger secure coding practices, early vulnerability detection, and improved product resilience.The third bug bounty broadened in scope, involving more products, participants, and testing scenarios. It uncovered 103 vulnerabilities (2 critical, 12 high, 34 medium, 49 low, 6 very low), representing a 200% increase in testing depth and 100% growth in participation, not a decline in quality. Importantly, remediation speed improved by 70%, and cross-team collaboration rose by 50%, underscoring the program’s effectiveness in driving both technical and cultural maturity.Overall, year after year, the initiative enhanced proactive defense capabilities, embedded security by design principles into every development stage, and fostered a resilient, security-driven culture that has become a defining element of Digitain’s organizational identity.
The uniqueness of the project
This project stands out as the first and only internal bug bounty initiative in Armenia, setting a national benchmark for proactive cybersecurity innovation. Unlike conventional vulnerability management programs that rely on external researchers or post-release testing, this initiative uniquely empowered internal teams-developers and QA specialists—to become ethical hackers. By transforming employees into active participants in offensive security, the project bridged the gap between software development and cybersecurity, creating a truly integrated defense culture.
Ultimately, the project’s uniqueness lies in its dual achievement: it strengthened the organization’s technical resilience while embedding security as a shared value, transforming cybersecurity into a defining element of Digitain’s organizational identity.
- Used software
- The program utilized industry-standard tools including Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, Metasploit, Kali Linux, Nessus, and Wireshark for vulnerability testing and analysis. GitLab and Jira supported secure code management and bug tracking, while virtualized sandbox environments and SIEM ensured safe testing, monitoring, and real-time incident detection throughout the program.
- Difficulty of implementation
- Implementing the internal bug bounty programs was challenging due to the need for specialized ethical hacking training and cultural transformation. Aligning developers, QA, and security teams required overcoming initial resistance, ensuring data safety during live testing, and maintaining consistent engagement across departments throughout the multi-phase, organization-wide initiative.
- Project Description
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We pioneered and managed three internal bug bounty programs - the first and only initiative of its kind in Armenia - aimed at transforming cybersecurity from a reactive process into a proactive, collaborative discipline. This groundbreaking project was designed to strengthen threat detection capabilities, enhance secure development practices, and cultivate a security-first mindset across the entire organization.As part of the initiative, our developers and QA specialists participated in a six-month intensive ethical hacking course conducted by the InfoSec team. The training equipped participants with practical offensive security skills, enabling them to identify, exploit, and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively. Following the training, participants were organized into cross-functional teams and challenged to hack each other’s products, simulating real-world attack scenarios in a controlled environment.This hands-on approach not only elevated technical expertise but also embedded security by design principles into every stage of the software development lifecycle. It fostered collaboration between engineering, QA, and security teams, breaking down silos and promoting shared responsibility for product security.The measurable outcomes included a year-over-year reduction in critical vulnerabilities, improved incident response maturity, and a stronger overall security posture. More importantly, the program reshaped our corporate culture, making cybersecurity an integral and celebrated part of our organizational identity.
- Project geography
- The project was implemented across Digitain’s offices in Armenia, Malta, and Romania, engaging cross-functional teams from all three locations. This international collaboration enabled knowledge sharing, diverse testing perspectives, and unified security practices across regions, strengthening the organization’s global cybersecurity posture while fostering a cohesive, security-focused culture across geographically distributed teams.