AfterDawn: News

Google now offering rewards to users who report bugs, flaws

Following in the footsteps of other companies such as Mozilla, Google has announced today that it is offering a reward for users that find and report security flaws in their software and Websites.

Says the company: "We are announcing an experimental new vulnerability reward program that applies to Google Web properties. As well as enabling us to thank regular contributors in a new way, we hope our new program will attract new researchers and the types of reports that help make our users safer."



Depending on how critical the flaw is, the reward will range from $500 to $3100. If you decide to give the prize to charity, Google will double the donation.

The bugs can be found on Google, YouTube, Blogger, Orkut and others. Android and Picasa are exempt.

Google started a similar program in January for its Chrome browser which they say "uncovered a wide range of great bugs...contributing to a more secure Chromium browser for millions of users."

Anyone who gets paid for the new program will also have their name featured on the credits page of the site.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 3 Nov 2010 0:14

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• 8 comments

• ROMaster2

  You'll never see Microsoft do this.

  3.11.2010 00:34 #1

• KillerBug

  Amazing...they completely ignore bug reports relating everything else, yet they pay money to people that find security related bugs.

  3.11.2010 00:51 #2

• biglo30

  I wonder why android is exempted, I guess its because its open source?
  

  3.11.2010 01:07 #3

• KillerBug

  No, because they never call android bugs critical, no matter how bad they are.

  3.11.2010 03:29 #4

• Grammarpatrol (unverified)

  All you penetration testers had better run and hide...

  3.11.2010 04:34 #5

• Mysttic

  I don't know of many pen-testers out of work that would do this, unless it was for charity or there were teenagers/college students. Either way good for google and those wishing to get their name out. MS used to do something like this 10 years ago but they kept it underground and it was when Gates was in charge. You'll never see Balmer give a shred of $, edited by ddp guy hates the sound of charity too.

  3.11.2010 10:04 #6

• ChiknLitl

  The top reward is $3133.7 ---Chikn
  

  3.11.2010 15:49 #7

• Grammarpatrol

  Originally posted by Mysttic: I don't know of many pen-testers out of work that would do this, unless it was for charity or there were teenagers/college students. Either way good for google and those wishing to get their name out. MS used to do something like this 10 years ago but they kept it underground and it was when Gates was in charge. You'll never see Balmer give a shred of $, edited by ddp guy hates the sound of charity too. It was a poke at the incorrect grammar used in the headline.
  

  3.11.2010 16:03 #8