Google is waging a war with hackers around the world in a bid to make Internet a much safer place by hunting and fixing the most insidious flaws in the world's software.
Google, leader in Internet search, is moving a step further to protect daily Internet users. It is a known fact that the net is susceptible to viruses like Heartbleed, which make it hard for users to freely use the software. To ensure online security, Google is putting together a team of top-notch security researchers with the sole aim of hunting down the most insidious flaws in the world's software and fixing them.
The team, which is referred to as "Project Zero", will unearth the hidden hackable bugs known as "zero-day" vulnerabilities with hopes to get them fixed, according to Wired. The team will not be limited to Google's software but will work with other softwares.
"People deserve to use the internet without fear that vulnerabilities out there can ruin their privacy with a single website visit," Chris Evans, a Google security engineer who formerly led Google's Chrome security team, told Wired. "We're going to try to focus on the supply of these high value vulnerabilities and eliminate them." The report also claims Evans will lead the yet-to-be-announced Project Zero.
Wired also took a sneak peek at the team behind Project Zero, which includes elite hackers like George Hotz, who is the world's first hacker to crack AT&T's iPhone in 2007. His skills were highlighted during his reverse engineering of PS3, for which Sony sued him. But Hotz' hacking capabilities were acknowledged by Google, after he dismantled the Chrome OS' defense security system. He was also rewarded $150,000 by Google.
In addition, Google also pulled Ben Hawkes, who discovered several bugs in Adobe Flash, Microsoft Office apps among others, Travis Ormandy, another bug hunter who showed zero-day flaws in antivirus software and Swiss-based Brit Ian Beer who found bugs in Apple's iOS, OSX and Safari.
The team, as Wired notes, will expand further and will operate from Google's Mountain View headquarters.
