Zee Media Bureau
Get ready for Google`s challenge and hold your breaths! Google has reportedly announced a whopping 2.7 million dollars bounty if security experts are able to hack its Chrome browser-based OS at the Pwnium 4 hacking contest.

The tech giant has informed that it will hold a contest called "Pwnium" in March, in which hackers can put their skills to the test by trying to hack into either the HP Chromebook 11 or the Acer C720 Chromebook.

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The company will dole out prizes of $US110,000 ($126,000) and $US150,000 ($172,300). In total, it will pay $US2.71828 million ($3.12m), which is a reference to the mathematical constant e, a concept that`s important to know when writing algorithms. To earn the $US110,000 payouts, hackers will have to compromise Chrome OS through a web page. For the $US150,000 prize, hackers will have to compromise the computers so thoroughly through a web page that the machine is still under their control even after it has been rebooted.

Those who think they can challenge Google`s security gates, can get themselves registered or can email Google at pwnium4@chromium.org. The deadline to register is close of business March 10.

Successful attacks that don’t survive the reboot will still also be handsomely rewarded. Google will still pay $110,000 for a successful non-persistent hack.

This year, participants will have their choice of targets. In previous Pwniums, the only targets available were Intel-based Chromebooks. This time around both HP’s ARM-based Chromebook 11 and the Acer C720 will be placed in harm’s way.

Google has held such contests before as a way to entice hackers to find security holes and present them to the company upfront, rather than disturb users and the company by performing their hack at a random time.

Last year Google put 3.14159 million dollars in the contest, but paid out just 40,000 dollars to a prolific hacker who goes by "Pinkie Pie," the contest`s sole participant, for what Google later called a partial exploit. Google said that it would consider larger bonuses to researchers who demonstrated a "particularly impressive or surprising exploit," like one that could circumvent kASLR, a new variant of the better-known ASLR anti-exploit technology used by Apple, Microsoft and Chrome OS.

Pwnium 4 is scheduled to take place on March 12 at the Canadian Security conference in Vancouver, Canada.

So hackers,get ready for some action and some serious money!
With Agency inputs