Google paid $8.7 million to helpful hackers in 2021

Google paid $8.7 million in 2021 to pay people who reported bugs. It is a bug hunt program with which ethical hackers who can prove that there is a weakness in, for example, Android, get money for their catch. Google can fix the bugs and that makes Android more secure.

Google bug program

Google’s bug program is broken up into all kinds of small bug programs: for Android, Play, Chrome and Google web services. More and more smart people know how to find these programs, it turns out. Google spent 2 million more on rewards in 2021 than in 2020. Moreover, those bug reporters do not always seem to want to keep the money for themselves.

Google writes: “Thanks to these incredible researchers, the Vulnerability Rewards programs on Google continued to grow. We are pleased to report that in 2021 we awarded a record $8,70,000 in vulnerability rewards — with researchers donating more than $300,000 of their rewards to a charity of their choice.”

Chrome is popular

Chrome, in particular, appears to be a good place to catch bugs, with $3.1 million of that going to the browser bugs and $250,500 to the Chrome OS bugs. The highest reward awarded was $45,000 and it was in Chrome OS. A total of 115 researchers were rewarded.

Android is also a location where many bugs appear to be crawling: in 2020 it was still $1.74 million in rewards, in 2021 that was $2.93 million. The highest Android reward ever was even forgiven last year at $ 157,000 by the discovery of a whole chain of exploits.

Titan M Pixel security chip price

What is still open is $1.5 million in the Titan M Pixel security chip price: anyone who finds a bug in an Android chipset can report it. However, it is a prize that you can only get if you have been invited by Google. In 2021, $296,000 was transferred to 220 correct reports.

Do you know someone who has successfully reported a bug and has been rewarded for it? Leave it in the comments.