HackerOne takes $25,000 from Belarusian hacker in response to sanctions
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I could see an argument if these were functioning democracies but they are not. Imagine if everyday Americans had to face punitive sanctions or like in this case outright theft because their democratically elected governments chose to invade a country (like Iraq) on false pretenses and proceed to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians (again, speaking of Iraq)
What Russia is doing in Ukraine is unconscionable, but in a totalitarian government, individual citizens have infinitely less agency than they do in the west. Even in the US, remember how little agency everyday Americans had to fight the governments decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11.
This ethical hacker did nothing wrong. The funds should have been frozen, not stolen without due process. It’s almost like HackerOne is begging for retribution. Let’s hope they don’t reap what they sow.
Cyberwar sounds pretty scary right now.
They have proven that they can't be trusted and you are better of selling your exploit on the dark web for crypto.
The whole point of HackerOne is to reward and incentivise hackers for finding vulnerabilities to make software services safer. In this case, the incentive is gone.
But it is yet another example of a private platform doing private platform things and now it sets another precedent of what they can do if you cross the line, with or without sanctions.
They might as well go elsewhere or even the dark web.
This is such a frustrating outlook. Your are powerless because you believe you are powerless. You believe you are powerless because your government recognized your power long ago and actively works to subvert it.
The police telling you to break into smaller groups is why you are powerless. Your cooperation with tyranny is all that makes you powerless.
We aren't even in your country and we know we are going to stop your government. We want to, and we will.
It's too bad we want it more than you, and sad that other people have to pay with their lives because you want to live on your knees.
You say "we" as if... you speak for HackerOne? If this is their true perspective, it is a tragedy. Allowing companies to do this basically sets a precedent for companies to arbitrarily say, "Hah, we don't like you, so we're not going to payout". In the future, you'll see people get "cancelled" because they said something bad, or because the CEO doesn't like their environmental views, or what have you. The individual is at the mercy of the big corp (hey, isn't that what you're against, in Belarus-government format?)
I suggest HackerOne (and this comment) to immediately rectify this by making all efforts to allow the individual to receive the funds (if&when it is legal to do so)
When you have to choose between personal physical health and slight possibility of improving your government, the choice is obvious. I doubt you would make a different choice if you were put in Russia.
And don't tell me there is power in numbers and millions of Russians can change anything. If there are millions of Russians that oppose this war (I'm not sure about it) it's hard to organize them. The people who were good at organizing protests were hunted.
EDIT: and I hate this patronizing western rhetoric "protesting the government is easy, I'll teach you how"