Google to pay up reward of $1.5 million for hacking Pixel phones

As the concerns over cybersecurity intensify, tech companies are looking for contributions from the hacker fraternity to mitigate potential loopholes in software for better user experience. Google has revised its bug bounty programme to offer as high as $1.5 million (roughly Rs 10.8 crore) as a reward to security researchers for discovering high-level vulnerabilities on the Pixel 4 smartphones.

In a blog post, Google said it will reward security researchers who can find full exploit chain in Pixel 4 devices with prize money of up to $1 million. The vulnerability that needs to be the top priority while looking for bugs, has to “demonstrate arbitrary code execution, data exfiltration, or a lock screen bypass.” These bugs necessarily have to be those in AOSP code, OEM code, kernel, Secure Element Code, and the TrustZone OS.

The prize money of $1 million will be rewarded when a security researcher manages to break into Titan M chip and explore vulnerabilities impacting the security.