Hacky

Hacky.ch is a Swiss cybersecurity firm that operates a bug bounty platform tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The company was conceptualized after co-founder Philipp Brügger discovered a password in a public training document, reported it, and received a less-than-positive response, which highlighted a need for a streamlined process for reporting security vulnerabilities. This experience led Brügger and his co-founder, Manuel Lusti, to establish Hacky with the vision of fostering collaboration between companies and ethical hackers.

Philipp Brügger has a background as an application developer and studied business informatics. Manuel Lusti trained as a mediamatician, worked in marketing at Sunrise, and is studying interaction design. The two founders also run a joint web agency, Codia GmbH, which they started in January 2023 and currently supports Hacky's development. The venture is self-financed by the founders, who retain full ownership. A significant milestone was achieved in December 2023, when Hacky won the award for the best newcomer idea at the Startup Nights in Winterthur as part of the Launchcontrol Incubator Program.

Hacky's business model centers on providing a continuous security testing service. Clients subscribe to the platform, and Hacky's global community of vetted ethical hackers, or 'white hats', continuously search for vulnerabilities in the client's IT infrastructure, including websites, applications, and servers. A key differentiator in their model is that Hacky, not the client, pays the financial rewards (bounties) to the hackers for any valid vulnerabilities found. This provides clients with predictable costs, as their subscription fee covers an unlimited number of discovered bugs. The setup process is designed to be straightforward, allowing companies to define the scope of what can be tested. When a vulnerability is reported, Hacky triages it, assesses its criticality, and forwards the details to the client for remediation, thereby acting as a bridge between the business and the security research community. The service is positioned as a complement to cyber insurance, helping to proactively reduce security risks.

Keywords: bug bounty platform, cybersecurity for SMEs, ethical hacking, vulnerability management, continuous security testing, penetration testing, IT security, white hat hackers, cybersecurity Switzerland, vulnerability reporting, web application security, network security, security-as-a-service, Codia GmbH, Philipp Brügger, Manuel Lusti, Startup Nights winner, information security, managed security services, proactive defense