Vigil Anti-Hacker Logs $110,000 Profit

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Side Hustle School continues to level up, and that's because of you, our amazing listeners. Yesterday, we had the story of the auctionistas, the dynamic sister duo that bids up profits for charities. Well, today we have the story of a guy who earns a lot of money, up to $20,000 a month, starting as a high school student by using what's known as ethical hacking. So this is something that we haven't talked about on the show, at least not before in this particular context. This was my introduction to the world of bug bounties, which I had never heard of before, and I found fascinating.

It's basically about helping companies discover computer vulnerabilities. This would not be a good side hustle for me, but maybe somebody who is into coding or is just good at finding needles and haystacks should pay close attention. Because even though, as I said, it wouldn't be good for me, I did find it fascinating. And this guy we're gonna tell you about today is a vigil anti-hacker, like a vigil anti-hacker, but a vigil anti-hacker. We had fun with that one, and I think you will like this story.

So stay tuned. Here's a quick shout out to our sponsor. [Music]

Samuel Curry is no stranger when it comes to side hustles. From a young age, he learned the value of earning money on his own. From selling soda cans on the street corner, to then selling watches and jewelry through e-commerce sites years later, he's continually upped his game.

After learning e-commerce, he shifted his interest further to learning about computer security. And what started as a hobby quickly turned into a fascination. When Samuel was in high school, a friend introduced him to a website called HackerOne, which provides training, resources, and assignments for those wanting to learn about the world of ethical hacking. Now, as part of this process, you learn about what's known as a bug bounty. And if you're confused by the term ethical hacking, or you think I just said Bugs Bunny, let me break it down for you.

Ethical hacking is sort of like being a vigil anti for computer security. You're doing something that's good for companies, and in some ways the world. Because ethical hackers help find bugs or security breaches on websites, which is extremely important when protecting consumer information. You know, like all those data breaches you're always hearing about, how your information has been stolen and sold. These hackers are trying to prevent that.

Bug bounty is a system that rewards hackers who uncover vulnerabilities in some of the most important internet software. The program is managed by a panel of volunteers selected from the security community. They provide compensation to people who find problems across various platforms. And the outcome can be very profitable for some. Samuel spent six months learning the basics.

He began allocating the extra time he had outside of school to focus on his new hobby. He would spend up to 30 hours each week studying security. Most of his time working was spent between the hours of 4 p.m. and 2 a.m. Information about his high school grades was not accessible at the time of recording.

He found opportunities through HackerOne and another site called Bugcrowd. Both these sites offer training for beginners and resources for those who want to level up their knowledge. On these sites, you can find websites to be checked for vulnerabilities. Each vulnerability will be marked according to severity, low, medium, high, and critical. The higher the severity, the more money will be paid to the hacker who finds it.

However, several hackers can be working on the same project at the same time, so it's a race to see who solves it first. Samuel finished high school and spent about three years using these platforms to find clients and projects. His biggest success to date earned him $17,000 as a result of compromising an entire website and reporting his findings to the company. In 2018, while working another job, he brought in $110,000 entirely through bug bounties. His earnings haven't always been so grand and they do fluctuate.

Some months he might make $20,000. Other months he won't make anything at all. So as with any side hustle, he advises not to depend on your bonus money as part of your regular income. There have been some months where he found himself in trouble because he was anticipating he would make the same amount of money as he did in previous months. He also recommends that you enjoy your side hustle and be interested in working on it.

If you are dreading spending time on it or don't feel excited about it, it will become more of a chore than a reward. Specifically with bug bounties and ethical hacking, you spend a lot of time on a computer. So if you don't like computers, this is not the right side hustle for you. Another challenge for him was that he struggled in the beginning with spending too much time working on it. The system created an obsessive work ethic that would leave him feeling burned out.

Once he finally let go of the need to work so many hours on it, he found a lot more freedom in his work. He went from spending time on it every day to only a few days a week. And he actually found that by having more concentrated focus, he was able to produce better results and in turn make more money. Samuel plans to continue working as a security consultant while maintaining this bug hunting hustle. [Music]

All right, so if you're out there and you too would like to become a vigil anti-hacker, an ethical hacker looking for these bug bounties, which as I said, I just find fascinating.

I don't think I ever realized this was such a thing, such an industry. So here's a couple of practical steps for you. Check out hacker1 and internetbugbounie.org. We're gonna link up these sites and some others in the show notes. I took a look at the bug bounties website and here's how they describe what they do.

It says, we've selected some of the most important software that supports the internet and we want you to hack it. If the public is demonstrably safer as a result of your contribution, we'd like to be the first to recognize your work and say thanks by sending some cash to you or your favorite nonprofit. The internet bug bounty has rewarded $709,000 in bounties to 180 friendly hackers for uncovering 770 flaws that have helped improve the security of the internet. So it could be really interesting for somebody out there. For the rest of us, we're just gonna be like, wow, that's pretty cool.

Go and make the internet safer and be rewarded for it. To me, stories like these illustrate that there's a whole new economy out there and there's just all kinds of different ways to carve out your little space and say, here's what I'm gonna focus on. Here's what I'm gonna be good at. And hopefully I'm gonna be able to make the world a better place, whether it's through this or something else and also benefit myself. All right, those show notes.

All right, sidehustleschool.com/766. This has been episode 766. Thank you so much for listening, my friends. I'll be back again tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]