On March 7th hackers from across the world will be descending on British Columbia for this years’ Pwnium contest, where the stakes are unprecedentedly high (or should that be pi?). Google have upped the anti by offering cash prizes equivalent to the famous irrational number of $3.14159 million (and 26 cents presumably) for those talented enough to hack into their Chrome operating system.
The figure is a considerable increase on last years’ $2 million and, in addition to the obvious marketing goals, is a sign of their growing confidence in an operating system that until now has held only a very small market share. The development team on the Chromium blog posted “We believe these larger rewards reflect the additional challenge involved with tackling the security defenses of Chrome OS, compared to traditional operating systems.”
Entrants will have to use a base Samsung 5 550 and the hack must be delivered via web pages over a wifi connection, with each successful attempt earning up to $150, 000 until the whole pi is gobbled up. Google have never had to pay out the full winnings in previous contests so they better hope this years’ PR stunt doesn’t attract the hackers that change that.
If you fancy your shot at temporarily bringing the internet giant to its knees, you can find out more information about the event on Google’s Chromium blog.
