Microsoft has long resisted this move, but starting June 26 — the date the Windows 8.1 preview will ship — it will finally launch its own security bounty program. The company will offer bounties up to $100,000 for “truly novel exploitation techniques” that expose security issues in Windows 8.1 Preview. It will also pay up to $11,000 for Internet Explorer 11 vulnerabilities and up to $50,000 for “defensive ideas that accompany a qualifying Mitigation Bypass submission.” Microsoft says it made this shift to bounty programs “in order to learn about these issues earlier and to increase the win-win between Microsoft’s customers and the security researcher community.” It’s worth noting that the IE 11 Preview program will only be open for 30 days after the launch of Windows 8.1 Preview. This makes sense, though.