Google expands reward programme for security patch developers

Johannesburg – Google has reportedly expanded its reward programme for developers who build security patches that improve web safety.

The search giant announced that the programme has been designed to reward those who contributed to making the internet a safer environment.

Google Security Team’s Michal Zalewski said that the goal is to recognise and reward proactive security improvements to third-party open-source projects that are vital to the health of the entire internet, News24 reports.

According to the report, the rewards range from 500 dollars to 3133.70 dollars and Google pointed out that the expanded list of projects included would be rewarded solely at the discretion of the maintainers of the project.

Google said that the rewards were flexible and unclaimed rewards would be donated to charity.

However, Google was clear to point that it would not allow submissions from countries on the US sanctions list, such as Cuba, North Korea, Iran, among others and insisted that the programme was not a competition, the report added.