Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Project Zero: Google Hires a Team of Hackers to Protect the Internet.

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Google Hires a Team of Hackers for Project Zero to Protect the Internet


Google wishes to make the Internet a safer place, so Google hires a team of hackers to protect the internet and to kill some of the biggest bugs creeping around within the Internet as a part of a new project named "Project Zero." Yup, Google is employing full-time team to find bugs in software made by other companies.

The Project Zero team plans to reduce the number of people affected by targeted attacks and kill bugs like Heartbleed before it gets big.


Chris Evans, a member of Google's security research team, wrote in an official blog post. “you should be able to use the web without fear that a criminal or state-sponsored actor is exploiting software bugs to infect your computer, steal secrets or monitor your communications.” He said that the team’s mainly an unselfish project, though there are some obvious profits for Google.

First, they’ll set-up with some dangerously talented folks on team. People like George Hotz a.k.a GeoHot. George Hotz cracked the PS3, unlocked the iPhone, and just finished building a really simple root utility for the Galaxy S5. Geogre has allegedly agreed to join Project Zero, where he’ll unite with Google security expert Tavis Ormandy.

You may not be familiar with Ormandy’s name, but he’s to blame for finding some impressive zero-day bugs in the past. In 2010, he in particular held Microsoft’s feet to the fire and gave them just 5 days to issue a fix for a bug in Windows XP. When they didn’t, he posted the exploit code online where it was rapidly used up by bad actors and used to negotiate PCs by means of a hacked website. He’s story includes the account of several other bugs since in less controversial manner, in apps varying from Sophos Antivirus to Windows 7.


Other team members consist of New Zealand’s Ben Hawkes and Britain’s Ian Beer, both highly-respected experienced person in the security scene. They’ll be given a very long harness and allowed to work on “anything that our researchers decide is a worthwhile investment.”

Apart from fetching new talent to the company, Project Zero will also profit Google by improving the complete security of the Internet and making users sense more comfort surfing online. Keeping users safe and happy online means more time spent posting updates, watching videos, clicking ads, and shopping and those are all things that produce data and revenue for Google.



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