Abhijeet Kumawat has written a detailed guide on how to find your first bug through a bug bounty program.
This is a scheme where ethical hackers identify vulnerabilities in software and systems and are rewarded with money.
Kumawat stresses that the key to success is having the right skills, and these include web application security, networking basics, familiarity with Linux and scripting, and understanding the OWASP Top 10, which is a list of the most critical web application security risks.
They should learn how web apps work and concentrate on vulnerabilities such as XSS, SQL injection and CSRF.
Understanding the most serious web application security risks will help them spot vulnerabilities more quickly.
Before starting to hunt for bugs they need to gain confidence in using tools like Burp Suite and OWASP ZAP.
TCP/IP, DNS and HTTP are the main network protocols to understand as most vulnerabilities involve some form of network communication.
Basic scripting skills in Python or Bash are also very useful for automating certain tasks.