Mozilla have announced a program to aid the discovery of potentially damaging security bugs in their suite of programs. Backed by Linspire, maker of Lindows and a major open source backer, and Internet entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth, founder of Thawte, has previously (and still does) offered cash rewards for creation of software / fixes / features in open source projects.
"Identifying software security vulnerabilities requires constant vigilance, and preventing those issues from becoming problems necessitates a dedicated effort to provide quick and effective responses. The Mozilla project has developed a community of users and developers who are passionate about computer security and who continuously provide feedback on Mozilla software. The Mozilla Security Bug Bounty Program seeks to further encourage the community"s focus on security consciousness and responsiveness."
Mozilla hope to use the program to stay one step ahead of vulnerabilities.
Asides from proving the foundations ability to grab internet headlines, Mozilla seem very adept at pushing the open source model to the max. With ever growing corporate backing, financial rewards to help programmers look for more damaging security bugs will increase reliability and it"s credibility as a competitor to IE (if you doubt/ed it).