A hacker can say that an institution has 90 days to fix a vulnerability before publicly divulging the secret, and for the vulnerable bank or credit union, that might come off as extortion or a threat. However, it is well within the boundaries of normal security research to do that, according to Kayne McGladrey, Field CISO for the security and compliance company Hyperproof.
“If the company doesn’t respond in a timely manner, that’s where you can get vulnerability disclosures after a reasonable period of time, like 90 or 120 days, or 180 days, depending on which philosophy the researcher subscribes to,” McGladrey said. “That’s all well within the ethical boundaries of a normal security researcher.”
The key difference between an ethical and unethical hacker — between extortion and responsible disclosure — is what the hacker does with the vulnerability.
“I think it’s very possible to say you can prove you can use this vulnerability — maybe it’s to steal a whole bunch of credit card information — without actually doing it,” McGladrey said. “You just show that you can.