Until recently, the words “bounty hunter” evoked imagery of lanky, stubbled men with wide-brimmed hats and boots, stalking the lanes of the Wild West, six-shooters in hip holsters. These gunslingers would make their living by hunting down criminals with rewards on their heads, bringing them in dead more often than alive.

Today, bounty hunters still exist, but in the dark caverns of the Internet. The new-age hunter is armed with skills as he sniffs out weak links in websites and apps, and reports them to the manufacturers. Officially termed “vulnerabilities” in cybersecurity lingo, the common word for them is bugs; and these men, bug 
bounty hunters.