The new year is barely two months old and it's already been a brutal one for the disclosure of new vulnerabilities. Java, Adobe Reader, Flash, Google Chrome and a number of other widely deployed applications have all been hit with a slew of serious bugs in just the last few weeks. And that's likely to get worse this week as researchers convene in Vancouver for the Pwn2Own and Pwnium hacking contests.
Google has announced the target for its third Pwnium hacking contest, to be held at this year's CanSecWest security conference, with $3.14159m in prize money for the researchers who can successfully crack its Chrome OS operating system.
And yes, that figure is derived from the first six digits of π.
At a Google-run competition in Vancouver last month, the search giant’s famously secure Chrome Web browser fell to hackers twice. Both of the new methods used a rigged website to bypass Chrome’s security protections and completely hijack a target computer. But while those two hacks defeated the company’s defenses, it was only a third one that actually managed to get under Google’s skin.
