Microsoft, the technology company, says that it will not give out rewards to security researchers for reporting bugs. The move is in contrast with measures from the company's rivals. Google and Mozilla have both hiked their rewards. The companies offer £2,000 for security alerts.

"At Microsoft we recognise, and appreciate, the unique value that security researchers play in identifying issues and helping the entire computing ecosystem improve from a security perspective," the company said in a blog post.

"Throughout the years we've seen researchers saying that, if vendors really valued their work, we'd compensate them directly for the vulnerabilities they discover. That's a trend that's continued in recent weeks. We absolutely value the researcher ecosystem, and show that in a variety of ways."

There is an argument that the company cannot afford to pay for all the security alerts that people send in. The company says that it receives more than 100,000 email messages per year through the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).