27
JAN
Google is offering $2,718,280 to anyone who can hack its operating system, Chrome OS.
Think you have what it takes? Well, you probably don't. This isn't the first time Google has put down big money on hacking the Chrome devices. Last year, Google had an even higher top prize of $3,141,590 to hack the Chrome OS. Notice something familiar there? That's right, Google likes to make nerdy jokes with its bounty amounts. The 3.14 million dollar price was a nod to pi, the really long irrational number you learned in high school math and promptly forgot about. This year's 2.71828 bounty is a nod to e, another mathematical constant, albeit slightly less well known.
The top prize is for a full and complete takeover of the OS running on the Hewlett-Packard or Acer Chromebook. This means that you, as the hacker, need to be able to take control of the computer even after it has been rebooted. With Chrome's unique browser-based infrastructure, this is going to be extremely difficult. But, not to fret! Prizes of $100,000 to $150,00 will be offered for less powerful hacks/exploits.
Photo of "Hackathon", a similar hacking challenge.
The hackathon is called Pwnium and it will take place on March 4, 2014 in Vancouver. Signups have already begun so if you have the chops, sign up now. But again, don't get your hopes up. With last year's 3.14 million dollar bounty, only one prize was handed out. $40,000 was paid to a hacker known as "PINKIEpie" for what Google called a "partial exploit".