Google increases payment to bug hunters

Google has increased the maximum payment for those who find a bug in its Chromium web browser to $3,133.7.

The Chromium Security Reward scheme was launched in January and Google claims that the program has been a success.

"We have been notified of numerous bugs, and some of the participants have made it clear that it was the reward program that motivated them to get involved with Chromium security," Google said in a blog post this week.

"Whilst the base reward for less serious bugs remains at $500, the panel will consider rewarding more for high-quality bug reports. Factors indicating a high-quality bug report might include a careful test case reduction, an accurate analysis of root cause, or productive discussion towards resolution."

The maximum reward for a single bug has been increased substantially from $1,337 to $3,133.7. But this will only be paid to those who find critical bugs in Chromium, the company said.

The increased reward reflects the fact that the sandbox makes it harder to find bugs of this severity, Google added.

Google follows in the tracks of Mozilla, which upped its bounty payment to $3,000 last week.

Even though Google has added $3,000 to the reward, not all users are happy, however.

"I highly doubt a $3,133.7 payoff is justifiable. If you figure an individual (or team) put in a combined effort of 160 hours, you're getting paid roughly $19 per hour," noted one commenter on the Google blog.

"I personally wouldn't waste my resources on someone who can not be justified being paid more than $19/hr. Neither would I waste my time providing any information to anyone who values their operating budget for security at $19/hour per incident."

Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of bed.....or maybe he was just upset that the reward is no longer code for elite.