Security News > 2020 > March > Epic Games floats $1m bounty to ID source of 'commercial smear' claiming Houseparty chat app has been hacked
Group video chat app Houseparty has offered a $1m bounty to identify what it claims is an organised campaign to falsely depict it as a hackers' backdoor.
Announced at 4am UTC on the firm's Twitter account, the million-dollar bounty is being offered to "The first individual to provide proof of such a campaign," with Epic Games, the firm behind Houseparty, alleging this effort is "a paid commercial smear to harm Houseparty."
Over the last few days, rumours have been seeded on Twitter that Houseparty is linked to people's online accounts being hacked.
The ever-reliable online wing of the Daily Mail gathered together a slack handful of tweets alleging Houseparty was the cause of account compromises.
"We've found no evidence to suggest a link between Houseparty and the compromises of other unrelated accounts," a spokesperson for Epic Games told the BBC. Bounties are vanishingly rare these days in the corporate tech world, normally being restricted to governmental prosecutors trying to lay hands on overseas criminals, as with US Federal prosecutors who want to arrest two Russians allegedly behind an online malware operation.