From Beginner to Pro: Your Successful Path in Threat Bounty

Essential Tips to Level Up in SOC Prime Threat Bounty Program

As a detection engineer, SOC analyst, and threat hunter, joining SOC Prime’s Threat Bounty Program opens the door to significant professional growth within a globally recognized cybersecurity community. The Program is designed to harness the expertise in detection engineering, enabling members to contribute high-value content for the use of security teams in organizations worldwide while benefiting from ongoing rewards and recognition. 

Whether you are looking to establish your foundation or optimize your existing strategies for contributions, these insights will help you make a strong impact on global cyber defense with your contribution

Core Guidelines for Members: What You Need to Know 

The SOC Prime Threat Bounty Program is designed for individual contributors who submit original work. It is only open to independent individual researchers, not representatives of companies or businesses. Our Program is not an educational course, so all participants are expected to already possess the skills required to create effective threat detection rules usable in complex, real-world infrastructures. 

Threat Bounty members are responsible for ensuring their content is original and free of any conflict of interest. Submissions must be unique and personally created, securing the release of high-quality and reliable detections. Copying or reusing someone else’s content for your contributions is strictly prohibited – your submissions should demonstrate your ability to address sophisticated cyber threats as a member of the Threat Bounty Program. This principle is reflected in the reward system, which incentivizes individual professionalism and quality of rules. High-quality detection with long-term value and rules to address emerging cyber threats earn higher rewards, motivating you to refine your skills continually.

Boost Your Experience: Explore Uncoder AI

To ensure a successful experience in SOC Prime’s rewards program, understanding how to fully utilize the capabilities of Uncoder AI is essential. Uncoder AI was introduced to the Threat Bounty Program, and as a detection engineering co-pilot, was designed to provide the Program members with the necessary tools to create, validate, and refine submissions effectively. 

To get the most out of this tool, take time to explore its full range of capabilities. SOC Prime offers a variety of resources and opportunities, including free access to the Uncoder AI, guides, blog posts, and a how-to video to help you navigate Uncoder AI and understand how everything works for Threat Bounty members in particular.

Whether you are a new or experienced member, familiarizing yourself with SOC Prime’s resources is essential to maximizing your productivity, staying aligned with the Program’s standards, and enhancing your success.

Best Practices for Submitting Detection Rules

Successful publications and monetization of Threat Bounty Detection rules require a strategic approach and attention to detail. Here are key points that can help you craft your submissions that stand out and maximize your rewards:

1. Stay updated on current threats. Successful contributors submit content that addresses recent, high-impact threats. Focus on high-profile incidents, malware, and widely-used attack techniques in the wild. Leverage available resources – use threat intelligence platforms, public reports, or your private lab research to ensure your submissions are aligned with current threat trends. 
2. Use the recommended rule creation standards and format. Follow the specific format for your Sigma or Roota contributions, including correct and applicable field values, relevant information for the description section, MITRE mappings, etc. Keep rule syntax clear and ensure the rule’s logic is optimized for performance. 
3. Emphasize accuracy, applicability, and performance. Approach creating your rules by paying attention to high-profile settings and detection methods valuable to organizations of various scales and technology settings — cloud infrastructures, hybrid networks, and multi-platform ecosystems. Prioritize rules that detect patterns of malicious behaviors. Focus on precise and actionable detection logic that targets realistic threat behaviors and emerging threats with minimal noise. 
4. Test, validate, and iterate. To ensure that all Program members can access the most recent SOC Prime tools and updates, all the Threat Bounty submissions are only accepted via Uncoder AI. Checking your detection code with Warden, the built-in validation tool, is a mandatory step for Threat Bounty submissions, and rules that fail it cannot proceed further. 
5. Submit your content and manage feedback. Further, the SOC Prime’s team will review your submission before release. However, please keep in mind that we do not provide individual consultation or detailed feedback on how to make your rule acceptable. Instead, we suggest discussing your ideas and challenges with the Threat Bounty community on our Discord server, which may provide you with additional feedback and advice from the community members. Also, it’s a good idea to regularly refer to the Threat Bounty Program guidelines to ensure your submissions meet all requirements and your rules get released within just one iteration on review.

Achieve Greater Success and Maximize Your Rewards

To make the most of your participation in the Threat Bounty Program, consider these proven approaches that will help you stand out and succeed:

Offer exclusive expertise. Keep in mind that the detection rules by Threat Bounty authors published to the SOC Prime Platform for monetization are exclusive additions of outsourced collective expertise to the teams and organizations that rely on the SOC Prime Platform. This means you are not filling gaps – you are providing critical insights and advanced solutions. Approach every Threat Bounty submission as a scientific work – original, well-researched, and meticulously crafted to serve the global community. 

Follow the recommendations and feedback. Pay attention to recommendations provided in the Program guides – this will steer your work toward the needs of organizations leveraging the SOC Prime Platform and increase the chances that your submissions will be in high demand. Besides, as the verification team reviews your submissions and provides feedback, consistently acting on their recommendations ensures your future submissions have a higher success rate.

Submit regularly, with purpose. Submitting high-quality rules regularly helps build your individual brand as a trusted contributor. Every submitted detection should be purposeful, focusing on high-priority threats, and your high-quality rules should reflect your best work. 

Final Insights

Threat Bounty Program provides a unique and valuable opportunity for detection engineers, SOC analysts, and threat hunters to make a real impact and elevate their expertise by submitting high-quality original detection in an environment of healthy professional competition. By focusing on innovation, quality, and consistency, you can maximize your success and have an additional source of earnings monetizing your detection engineering skills.