Google’s asking for it! $20,000 offered to anyone who can hack Chrome

Every year, CanSecWest security conference hosts a hacking contest (Pwn2Own), this year however, Google got a bit upset.

Most software businesses shudder at the thought of their software being entered into the contest, with the first person to successfully exploit the software winning a considerable wad of cash. Not Google.

Instead, Google asked for their software Chrome, to be included in the conference and even put up a further $20,000 for anyone that could hack it.

Researchers last year said the security sandboxing (that is, the security between the software and the operating system) buttressing the Google browser was so hard to defeat that successful exploits were worth much more than the $10,000 available for each browser hack.

“It shows a mature attitude to the problem because they [Google] know that the actual release of the information is something that just makes the thing stronger,” Dragos Ruiu, organizer of the CanSecWest security conference, said.