HackerOne proves hackers are not all bad

San Francisco

IN 2011, two Dutch hackers in their early 20s made a target list of 100 high-tech companies that they would try to hack. Soon, they had found security vulnerabilities in Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and 95 other companies' systems.

They called their list the Hack 100.

When they alerted executives of those companies, about a third ignored them. Another third thanked them, curtly, but never fixed the flaws, while the rest raced to solve their issues. Thankfully for the young hackers, no one called the police.

Now the duo, Michiel Prins and Jobert Abma, are among the four co-founders of a San Francisco tech startup that aims to become a mediator between companies with cybersecurity issues and hackers like them who are looking to solve problems rather than cause them. They hope their outfit, called HackerOne, can persuade ot…