The world still treats bug hunters like criminals

Kat Sommer, head of government affairs at NCC Group, joins Safe Mode to unpack the DEF CON talk she gave on how governments around the world are — and mostly aren't — protecting security researchers. Of the roughly 195 jurisdictions on the planet, Sommer found only about 15 have enacted any form of legal safe harbor for vulnerability research, and just one, Portugal, has what she'd call a proper one on the statute book. She walks Greg Otto through the patterns that emerged from that survey: the encouraging shift toward regulating conduct rather than actors, the conditions that actually make sense (don't extort the vend...