Project Zero: When 17-year-old George Hotz became the first hacker in the world to break AT & T's iPhone lock in 2007, companies ignored him and tried to fix the bugs he had discovered. When he later broke the Playstation 3, Sony sued him and only accepted a settlement when Hotz agreed never to break another Sony product.
Hotz then dismantled her operating system's defenses Google Chrome. His company paid him $150.000 as a fee. Two months later, Chris Evans, a Google security engineer, e-mailed him: Would Mr. Hotz like to join an elite full-time hacker team hunting for vulnerabilities in every popular company product?
So Google is publicly revealing the team (via Wired), known as Project Zero, a team of top security researchers whose sole mission is to identify and fix the most insidious security vulnerabilities. These secret hackable bugs, known in the security industry as "zero-day", are exploited by criminals, or state-sponsored hackers and intelligence services. By outsourcing this project to researchers, Google hopes to build a strong security infrastructure in its products.
Chris Evans
Google's security researcher Chris Evans is in charge of hiring top talent to run Project Zero.
“Οι άνθρωποι αξίζουν να χρησιμοποιούν το διαδίκτυο χωρίς το φόβο ότι ένα τρωτό σημείο μπορεί να καταστρέψει την ιδιωτική τους ζωή” αναφέρει ο Evans. Είναι ερευνητής ασφαλείας βρετανικής καταγωγής και ηγήθηκε στην πρώην ομάδα ασφαλείας του Chrome πριν αναλάβει το τιμόνι του Project Zero.
In Project Zero he has already hired a group of high-profile hackers who used to work for Google: New Zealander Ben Hawkes has discovered dozens of bugs in software such as Adobe Flash and Microsoft Office μόνο το 2013. Ο Tavis Ormandy, ένας Άγγλος ερευνητής ο οποίος έχει τη φήμη σαν ένας από τους πιο παραγωγικούς κυνηγούς bug στον κλάδο, ανήκει και αυτός στην dream team. Ο Αμερικάνος hacker George Hotz, ο οποίος έσπασε το Chrome OS της Google και κέρδισε στον διαγωνισμό hacking Pwnium τον περασμένο Μάρτιο, θα είναι και αυτός οικότροφος της ομάδας. Ο Ελβετός Brit Ian Beer είναι στην μυστική ομάδα ασφαλείας της Google τους τελευταίους μήνες, από τότε που ανακάλυψε έξι bug βρίσκει στο iOS της Apple, το OSX και το Safari.
Evans says the team is not complete even hiring continues. Its aim is to have more than ten full time researchers in its management shortly. Most will work at a desk in Mountain View, using hunting bugs, but also with the hacker's pure intuition.
Evans insists Project Zero is "mostly altruistic." But he has an enticing level of freedom to work on difficult security issues with minimal restrictions. He can also use the recruitment that will bring top talent to Google, where they can later join other teams. And as with all Google other projects, the company claims that this benefit will be received by the end user of the internet. After all, safe and happy end users get more clicks on Google ads.
