Elon Musk's SpaceX Offers Researchers Up To $100,000 To Hack Into Starlink

Elon Musk's SpaceX has offered security researchers rewards of up to $100,000 to conduct tests on Starlink as well as weed out vulnerabilities within its framework.

What happened: Elon Musk recently reposted a post by Tesla Inc. TSLA influencer Sawyer Merritt, which shared an article that highlighted the company's Bug Bounty program.

According to an official blog post by SpaceX, the company shared how it protects Starlink through a ‘multi-layer' defense system to keep the end users' privacy in check and protect their data.

"We allow responsible security researchers to do their own testing, and we provide monetary rewards when they find and report vulnerabilities," SpaceX said in the blog post.

The Bug Bounty program takes an average of 2 days to validate submissions, according to Bugcrowd. The average payout is upwards of $1400. As stated above, SpaceX offers rewards up to $100,000, but it's on a ‘case-by-case' basis.

Why it matters: Starlink boasts over 7,000 low Earth Orbit satellites in its constellation. Recently, the company announced free Starlink hardware in countries like Italy and Australia as it looks to expand its presence in the space-based satellite internet sector.

Elon Musk recently confirmed on social media platform X that the company will be providing its services in Somalia as well. This comes at a time when Starlink is expanding its global reach with the company now operating in countries like Jordan and Guyana.

The company now has its presence in over 100 countries worldwide. Recently, Canadian telecom giant Bell Canada criticized Musk's Starlink for the subsidies the company receives.

Currently, Starlink's main competitor is Amazon.com Inc. AMZN Project Kuiper, which aims to deploy more than 3,000 low Earth orbit satellites shortly. A launch for Project Kuiper satellites aboard a ULA rocket was delayed due to unfavorable weather conditions in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

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