But had you stuck with it, you could now show your parents just how lucrative it is to hunt bugs-programming bugs, that is. Last year, it raised the maximum reward to $50,000, a figure it is now doubling to a cool $100,000.
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Guest mode allows the user to share their device without divulging personal information and is reportedly the mode the when Chromebook uses its highest defensive measures.
The company also took the opportunity to announce that it extended its reward program to include the diversion safeguards of the Safe Browsing to prevent unwanted downloads. In fact, it is so confident that it is placing a bounty of $100,000 up for grabs to anybody who can develop a persistent compromise of a Chromebook while the computer is in guest mode, even when the computer is rebooted.
Google distributed over $2m in security rewards to hackers previous year. The reward for this is a mere $1,000, though. This makes the Chromebook attractive to people who wouldn’t traditionally be particularly vigilant on security, which makes getting security right on ChromeOS all the more important – and the bounty programme is a key part of that.
Several large USA businesses have used bug bounty programs to help find holes in their network security before hackers do.
Security bugs disclosed to other parties in the context of fixing the issues will qualify for the reward, but if the information is shared to mislead or for any other reason, the applicant will be rejected then and there.
Google also says that any vulnerabilities – regardless of whether there’s an official bounty – are potentially eligible for a reward, although the rules for qualifying submissions are relatively strict.
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Through its awards program related to safety previous year, Google has paid more than $ 2 million to hackers who managed to exploit the flaws of its products by submitting the procedure to follow. The social media giant has spent more than $4.3 million on rewards granted to over 800 researchers.
