Microsoft Launches Zero Day Quest: A $4 Million Hacking Event Focusing on AI and Cloud Security

Microsoft Unveils Zero Day Quest: A Groundbreaking Hacking Event

Microsoft has announced Zero Day Quest, a pioneering hacking event aimed at bolstering security in cloud and AI technologies. This initiative, revealed at the Ignite conference in Chicago, offers a substantial $4 million in potential rewards for researchers who uncover high-impact vulnerabilities 1

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Event Structure and Participation

Zero Day Quest kicks off with an open research challenge running from November 19, 2024, to January 19, 2025. This phase allows all participants to submit vulnerabilities for specific scenarios, with successful submissions earning multiplied bounty awards 2

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. The challenge serves as a qualifier for an exclusive onsite hacking event planned for 2025 at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington campus 3

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Focus on AI and Cloud Security

A key highlight of Zero Day Quest is its emphasis on AI security. Microsoft is doubling bounty awards for AI-related vulnerabilities and providing researchers direct access to its AI engineers and Red Team 2

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. This move underscores the growing importance of securing AI technologies in an era of rapid advancement.

Expanding the Bug Bounty Program

Zero Day Quest expands Microsoft's existing bug bounty programs, covering a wide range of products and platforms including:

• Microsoft AI
• Azure
• Identity
• Dynamics 365
• Power Platform
• M365 1

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Collaboration and Community Building

Tom Gallagher, VP of Engineering at the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), emphasized the event's collaborative nature: "Zero Day Quest will provide new opportunities for the security community to work hand in hand with Microsoft engineers and security researchers - bringing together the best minds in security to share, learn, and build community as we work to keep everyone safe" 1

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Part of a Broader Security Initiative

This event is a component of Microsoft's Secure Future Initiative (SFI), launched in November 2023. The SFI represents a significant cybersecurity engineering effort, involving the equivalent of 34,000 full-time engineers focused on high-priority security challenges 2

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Addressing Past Security Challenges

The launch of Zero Day Quest comes in the wake of several high-profile security incidents involving Microsoft products. These include a Chinese hack of the cloud-based Exchange email platform in May 2023, which resulted in the theft of over 60,000 emails from U.S. State Department accounts 2

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Qualification and Rewards

To qualify for rewards, researchers must identify previously unreported vulnerabilities that are reproducible and classified as Critical or Important in severity. Successful participants may receive invitations to the 2025 onsite event, with Microsoft covering travel expenses for top-ranked researchers 3

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Impact on Microsoft's Security Culture

This initiative aligns with Microsoft's efforts to overhaul its security culture, addressing criticisms raised in a report by the Cyber Safety Review Board of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security 3

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. By fostering collaboration between external researchers and internal teams, Microsoft aims to enhance its security measures across all products and platforms.