In an attempt to weed out third party application security bugs and other threats especially in the wake of Heartbleed, Google is launching "Project Zero" to protect Google users that could be affected by such bugs known as zero-day vulnerabilities, reports infosecurity magazine.
These flaws allow hackers with malicious intent to steal data, contacts and identities as well as install spyware, malware, and perform other methods of espionage on government computers, industries, and individuals.
"Project Zero" is a team of Google's top security researchers (read: full-time hackers) designed to track down and neutralize the most insidious security flaws found in softwares all over the world.
Google has its own interest to protect through the formation of this team as they will also be exposing bugs that they find in other softwares.
Nonetheless, the benefits from this project could be big.
Aside from building user confidence in their services, Google will also get to protect its revenues from advertisements by protecting its links that direct users to third party sites. Of course, the tech giant recognizes the bigger picture of securing the safety and integrity of the internet in general.
Chris Evans, also known at Google as the "Researcher Herder," explained in depth in a blog post that Project Zero is looking for the best hackers they can find and offering them jobs. According to Evans, the project is Google's contribution to reduce the cases of cyber attacks that have been rampant recently.
The project will work in such a way that the team will search for bugs online and directly report any incident to the vendor of the software who will later on be given a certain period of time to prepare a patch. Once available, the fix will be publicly reported in a database that will be published for online users to monitor.
Google is currently hiring hackers who are up to the job, reports Tech Times. Those interested may feel free to apply.
