Google has announced a contest called Pwnium at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver this month. It would give out rewards worth up to $1 million to anyone who can hack its Chrome web browser. The contest is a kind of CanSec’s annual Pwn2Own competition, where IT-minds are challenged to hack targeted web browsers and mobile operating systems. The Pwn2Own competition kicks off on March 7. 

Photo: Google Chrome’s ‘live’ logo, from wired.co.uk

Last year, during the Pwn2Own, hackers were unable to defeat Chrome, while rival browsers, Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer were cracked on the first day of the competition. In this case, Google offers definitely a more qualitative product than Microsoft that is accusing Google in low-qualitative solutions.

This year, Google is not sponsoring Pwn2Own, because now contestants are permitted to enter Pwn2Own without having to reveal full exploits, says Wired. Google wants to fix the bugs found and use the data to improve its browser. That’s why the tech giant is running its own competition.

Google will offer different amounts of cash with the total sum limit of $1 million. The reward will depend on the severity of the bug. For instance, a hacker gets $60,000 if he copes with a ‘Full Chrome exploit’ which means an obtaining of a user account persistence using only bugs in the browser itself. All winners will also receive a Chromebook.