Google bug bounty tops $100,000 in first year

Google has now paid out $100,000 ($A99,000) to security researchers who have found bugs in its software.

The bug bounty first kicked off in February last year, and was extended to cover websites in November.

For the latest round, Google paid out $1,000 prizes to 13 researchers, and $500 to two.

Google also highlighted a bug spotted by its own employee Tavis Ormandy, infamous for his zero-day disclosure of a Microsoft flaw last year, and another pair also noticed by Google's own security workers.

Of the total 18 bugs reported, three worth $1,000 each were discovered by Sergey Glazunov, who won the top prize worth more than $3,000 last month.

"You should just hire some of these guys straight out," one commenter on the Chrome release blog noted. "A few of them are in there every update."

Chrome will automatically update to the latest version featuring the bug patches.

This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk