The annual Pwnium Hacking Program will be no more as Google reinvents the event to a year-round fiesta. The Original Pwnium Hacking Program is a single-day activity held at a security conference (CanSecWest) whose main objective is expose vulnerabilities or malicious bugs in the company's products. A large sum of money has always been put up as a prize for the hackers or security geeks who can discover a loophole in the program.
Last 2014, a 2.7 million dollar prize money was offered during the event and paid a sum of 190, 000 dollars to hackers who discovered a glitch in the Chrome OS, 150, 000 dollars for George Hotz, a notable iPhone and Playstation Hacker, and another 150, 000 dollars to the hacker for a partial exploit of a glitch in a program. But with the latest innovation by Google, the event will no longer be held for just a day but instead it will be transformed into a whole year opportunity for technology savvy people. This is according to a blog by Tim Willis, a Chrome security engineer.
The 2015 Pwnium Hacking Program would allow hackers to submit bugs and glitches reports any day of the year. Google also has increased the prize money for each anomalies found. Previously, Google pays an amount of $500- $50,000 for bugs found. The amount rewarded is dependent on the severity of the bug exploited. With the innovation of Google, the prize money is increased to an infinity million dollars which could mean more money for hackers and limitless prize giving from the company.
However, not all techno savvy people are qualified to join the said event. There will be countries that are allowed to join the competition but will not be paid. There is a list of sanctioned countries for this event. But on the brighter side of things, many "researchers" will be able to join the event without needing to go to a specific venue.
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