Internet Defense Prize: Facebook Will Pay up to $300K in Awards this 2015

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 04 Nov 2014

Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan recently announced that via the Internet Defense Prize, Facebook will offer up to $300,000 USD in awards for 2015.

The Internet Defense Prize is a partnership between Facebook, the social network that needs no introduction, and USENIX, a leader in security research. The Internet Defense Prize was created in 2014. The award is funded by Facebook and offered in partnership with USENIX to security researchers that find meaningful ways to secure the internet.

Via the Internet Defense Prize, Facebook and USENIX want to recognize and reward research that makes the internet a safer place. Research that contributes to the protection and defense of the internet is celebrated and rewarded by the Internet Defense Prize.

“Reports of security vulnerabilities tend to grab the most attention in the industry, but some of the most promising ideas for a more secure Internet actually come from the academic world and can sometimes get lost in the mix. That’s why we created the Internet Defense Prize, an award to support research that meets two primary criteria: emphasis on protection and defense, and a meaningful contribution to the security of the internet,” Joe Sullivan explained.

This August, at the 23rd USENIX Security Symposium, the first Internet Defense Prize was awarded to Johannes Dahse and Thorsten Holz. The two researchers from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany received a prize of $50,000 USD. They received this prize because their work used static analysis to detect “second-order vulnerabilities,” in which malicious files are installed on a web server and later used to inflict harm.

The 24th USENIX Security Symposium will take place in Washington, D.C., on August 12-15. The winners of the 2015 Internet Defense Prize will be announced then.

Additional information about the Internet Defense Prize is available here.

Additional information on USENIX is available here.



Latest News


Sony's 'Attack of the Blockbusters Sale' Slashes Prices in Half for a Ton of PS4 Games

17 Aug 2017

How Samsung's New T5 Compares to the Old T3 Portable SSD (Infographic)

17 Aug 2017

See all