Google launches the Android Security Awards, in which will be awarded to users who have found problems in the security of the operating system Android. To some extent the developer starts to compete with the US Army, which also offers to sell information about vulnerabilities in mobile operating system.
Holes in the safety of the most popular mobile operating system increasingly used by hackers and virus writers, which becomes a major cause of loss of funds users. Even the way Android M, it seems, the situation will not change dramatically as the release of new versions of Android, by the way, is quite rare. In this critical problems regularly found developers. In particular, in May, it was found a problem, due to which the threat appeared to be more susceptible to 500,000 units, and Edward Snowden said that the virus would spread through the official Google Play store US intelligence agencies.
For error category “Moderate” Google is willing to pay $ 500 for problems of high risk – $ 1,000 for critical holes – $ 2,000. The amount will be doubled to 50%, if the contestants will be able to create a test job to check for problems, and twice in the case of writing a patch to fix the problem.
The highlight Google:
“The final amount of compensation is always selected in accordance with the decision of the expert committee. In particular, we can decide to pay higher amounts for highly complex or serious vulnerabilities; Decide what is more profitable for you: a single report, including a description of several problems or several closely related reports to ensure uniform award. “
It is worth noting that, under the terms of the program, contestants can detect vulnerabilities only on devices offered by the official retailers in the US, that is, the Nexus and Nexus 9. 6 If the error will be fixed on another device, the user who discovered it, would not be able qualify for the award Android Security Awards. Compensation will be paid only to the first party, discovered the vulnerability. If the problem occurs after a complex set of actions, such as the application will not be considered. However, there is a positive thing: so, especially for the detection of serious security holes remuneration may reach 30 000 dollars.
While Google is constantly engaged in the search for vulnerabilities in Android, the company’s specialists can not detect them all. That is why the help of independent experts in the field of security in the analysis of the problems of the operating system may increase the chances of Google in detecting holes to the moment when they become aware of the general public.
Analysts from the company FireEye recently published a report which stated that from January to October 2014 the number of malicious software for Android has increased by 500% compared to the same period of 2013. However, in April 2015, Google announced that the number of potentially dangerous software installed on devices running Android, it has decreased by 50% per year, and currently only 1% of devices are malware. Well, according to experts, this means that about 10 million Android-plates, smartphones and other gadgets contain Viruses.
