Google is offering a bug bounty program in order to identify flaws on Android Apps available on its Google Play Store. The internet juggernaut has promised to pay a reward of $1000 for each flaw under this program which was announced on Thursday this week. The aim is to back up Google’s automated checks which have failed to block malware and other issues that security experts say have infected the 8- year old app store.
Google will partner with HackerOne, a bug bounty program management website, to list out the apps which have to be targeted. The program aims to weed out malicious apps that allow a hacker to redirect a user to a phishing website or infect a gadget with a virus.
It’s obvious that software scans are much more effective when compared to the manual work conducted by a person to discover creative hacks. And so, Google is effectively sponsoring a research into software created by other companies to detect flaws and anomalies in apps placed in its play store.
A spokesperson from Alphabet, the parent company of Google said that the search giant doesn’t only care about its own apps, but is rather interested in keeping the overall health of the app ecosystem of its Play Store.
Google aims to start the bug bounty program with a small funding and then wants to scale it as per the developments.
In July 2015, a similar program was launched by the San Francisco based company and financial experts estimate that Google spent more than $1.5 million to get a report on hundreds of app vulnerabilities prevailing on its Play Store.
