British security researcher gets $100,000 award from Microsoft

Microsoft Corp. has awarded $100,000 to a British security researcher for uncovering ways to get around security defenses built into Windows 8.1. James Forshaw, head of vulnerability research at Context Information Security, received the award after informing Microsoft of the software flaw that could allow what is termed a mitigation bypass technique. Learning about new mitigation bypass techniques helps developing defenses against entire classes of attack, Microsoft said. Microsoft is not providing details of the technique uncovered by Forshaw until it can come up with a security fix, The Register reported Wednesday. Microsoft praised Forshaw's research in a post on its Blue Hat blog. "We're thrilled to receive this qualifying Mitigation Bypass Bounty submission within the first three months of our bounty offering," Katie Moussouris of Microsoft Trustworthy Computing said. "James [Forshaw's] entry will help us improve our platform-wide defenses and ultimately improve security for customers, as it allows us to identify and protect against an entire class of issues." Microsoft's bounty program is one of a number of industry efforts to reward researchers for reporting flaws to companies rather than providing details of software flaws to those who might maliciously exploit them.