Talk about big numbers indeed. Hackers and programmers from all around the world would be very happy to hear about the $2.7 Million that Google is offering to anyone who can find a breach in their system. According to the internet search company, a person that could find “new or interesting” paths of attack into their specified system could possibly be awarded. The systems that are the supposedly targets are the Chrome OS and the Chrome hardware suite. It will be held at this year’s CanSecWest and I’m pretty sure everyone will be busy finding a way in.
Google’s Chrome OS has undergone significant improvements since its release in terms of efficiency and security. An internet giant like Google would not let their flagship OS model to be easily penetrated. This event will make sure that the Chrome OS is very safe so that users will have their peace of mind.
To be specific, a team could win up to $150,000 if they are able to breach the Chrome Operating System by using a webpage approach. If the attack originated from a webpage, or a webpage is used to penetrate the system, then the researchers would have no choice but to give the money up.
There’s also a $110,000 reward for the team that hacks a Chromebook just by using a guest user account. The guest user account has very limited access points and functions and it would be a big blow if anyone finds a way to breach the Chromebook just by using that account. Hackers and programmers will definitely have their hands full on this one.
Lastly, there’s also a reward for a unique or new kind of breach that Google hasn’t thought of. If a team discovers another way to penetrate the Chrome system in general, then there would be “significant” rewards. Surely, this is not as big as the reward above, but I’m pretty sure it’s a decent amount.
Google engineers will make sure that their systems are ready for any kind of attack before day one of the CanSecWest event. They will be patching up their systems to cover any vulnerability that they may have left behind. As compared to last year’s event, there will be a significant change as participants can now choose to test both Intel and ARM architecture for penetration testing. In the past, the only focus was on Intel based Chrome devices and this year, everything is on the table including the ARM-based Chromebook such as the HP Chromebook 11 and ACER C720 Chromebook model.
It’s great to see that Google is taking all the necessary precautions to ensure that their system is secure. These days, you’ll never know what kind of online threat is out there. If you want to have a peace of mind when connecting online, then you should opt for a Virtual Private Network or VPN. Faceless.me is an amazing VPN service provider and guarantees you fast and encrypted connections. Protect yourself from breaches with Faceless.me so you’ll feel safer online.