Google to reward Chrome bug finders

2010-02-02

Google has started to offer financial rewards for information on bugs in the company's recently-introduced browser Google Chrome.

The search engine giant will offer between $500 (£310) and $1,337 (£830) to those who report bugs, which could be good news for users looking to avoid an IT intrusion.

However, rewards cannot be sent to those from countries the US has imposed the highest levels of export restrictions on, Google revealed in the Chromium Blog.

"Anything which encourages the bug hunters to report the bugs responsibly, rather than telling the whole world, has to be good for everyone who wants a more secure internet," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for computer security firm Sophos.

He added that steps such as these by Google have been seen in the past and they are motivated by the desire to have vulnerabilities reported privately rather than publicly.

Google's rewarding system is similar to one operated by Mozilla, which has been offering remunerations to those who find security exploits for some time.

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