Posted by Dirk Göhmann, Tony Mendez, and the Vulnerability Rewards Program Team 2025 marked a special year in the history of vulnerability rewards and bug bounty programs at Google: our 15th anniversary 🎉🎉🎉! Originally started in 2010, our vulnerability reward program (VRP) has seen constant additions and expansions over the past decade and a half, clearly indicating the value the programs under this umbrella contribute to the safety and security of Google and its users, but also highlighting their acceptance by the external research community, without which such programs cannot function. Coming back to 2025 specifically, our VRP once again confirmed the ongoing value of engaging with the external security research community to make Google and its products safer. This was more evident than ever as we awarded over $17…