Cybersecurity talent is turning to bug bounty hunting (over their jobs and official educational environments) to learn the most relevant and up-to-date security knowledge, according to a recent report.

The Ethical Hacker Insights Report 2022 from Intigriti surveyed 1,181 people who had experience with bug bounties, penetration testing and ethical hacking to determine how ethical hackers learn their craft and interact with organizations.

The survey results indicate that this generation of tech talent isn't getting what they need from employers to keep their skills and knowledge up to date, despite rising cybersecurity threats. For cybersecurity knowledge, for example, 50% of respondents say they turn to bug bounty hunting to learn the most relevant and useful information, compared to just 11% who gave their job as their first choice.

The same holds true for traditional education paths. When it comes to building a toolset of the most relevant and useful information about security, 78% of respondents chose bug bounty hunting as the best resource, compared to 8% that said they learned more from an official education environment.

The educational benefits of bug bounty hunting play a crucial part in the discipline becoming an increasingly popular career path in 2022. According to the survey, 96% of ethical hackers would like to dedicate more time to bug bounty hunting in the future, and 66% are considering it as a full-time career.

For more ethical hacking insights, click here.