Google has put up a total of $1,000,000 as a bounty for people who can identify and exploit holes in their Chrome browser. The hacking competition will be called Pwnium and run sepeartely to the already popular Pwn2own hacking contest that covers a broader range of software. Google will pay $20,000 to any participant who can exploit hackable bugs in Windows, Flash, or a device driver, which are security problems that would affect users of all browsers. For hacks that identify exploits specific to Chrome, Google will pay $40,000 each, and for those that exploit only bugs in Chrome, the company will shell out $60,000, up to its million dollar limit. They are running the contest for two reasons; one to build up publicity because the browser is so hard to crack, and to proactively seek out exploits that they can fix before they become a problem. Google says that their browser is already so secure that nobody has been able to hack it since it’s debut in 2009. We’ll see if a little month can take some of the shine off of Chrome.
