Google has cancelled its annual Pwnium hacking contest, saying the shindig was letting vulnerabilities go undisclosed for too long. For the last four years, Google has staged Pwnium as a one-day event giving hackers and security wonks a chance to earn prize money by finding vulnerabilities in the company’s products. Starting today, Pwnium will change its scope significantly, from a single-day competition held once a year at a security conference to a year round, worldwide opportunity for security researchers.
For those who are interested in what this means for the Pwnium rewards pool, Google rewards now goes all the way up to $∞ million. The lowest reward for eligible bugs is $500. If the rewards panel finds the bug particularly severe, the value can be higher. Google also mentioned that this is not a competition, but rather an experimental and discretionary rewards program. Google can cancel or modify the program at any time.
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