Google Inc. (GOOG) Chrome Hacker Wins 2nd $60K Award

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been touting the security of its Chrome Web browser in recent months, citing that is previous hack competitions have helped strengthen the security and coding of the browser and how it works with Web sites.  But alas, for the second time this calendar year, a teenager has found a significant exploit in the browser and has won his or her second $50,000 reward from Google Inc. (GOOG) for finding and executing the exploit.

The teen, who goes by the name “Pinkie Pie” (to protect his or her identity due to disapproval of this activity by an employer), came up with the first Chrome vulnerability at the Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Hack in the Box conference this week. This is the second time this year that this particular hacker savant beat Chrome’s security, as “Pinkie Pie” won a $60,000 reward in March during the Pwnium competition hosted by Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by putting together six vulnerabilities that enabled a breakout of Chrome’s sandbox.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been offering these kinds of cash rewards to security exploits for several years, and this year had set aside $2 million in reward money for various levels of security exploits – with $60,000 serving as the top prize, with $50,000 and $40,000 given out for “partial” exploits to Chrome and exploits that are found in other sources – like Windows, Flash or other non-Chrome-specific driver that may provide risks for users. The notion behind this is that Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has the mission to “make the entire web safer.”

Information about this latest exploit can be found here – and information about key Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) investors like billionaire fund manager Julian Robertson of Tiger Management, can be found here.