Google awarded US $ 1,12,000 equivalent to Rs. 7,169,300 approximately to a Chinese security researcher for finding and reporting an exploit in Google Pixel smartphones. Guang Gong who has been awarded the money has been a researcher of the Alpha Team, Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd.
Guang Gong had submitted the working remote exploit chain in August 2017 and it was the first report submitted to Google after the tech giant had expanded its Android Security Rewards (ASR) program. This is the highest award given to anyone in the history of ASR program.
As per the Google the issue reported by Guang Gong in August 2017 was resolved in the same year as a part of the December 2017 monthly security update. All updates will automatically be installed on all pixel devices and user have to restart the device for once only after the update.
Devices with possible security exploits: Below are the smartphones which are under the programme and will be getting updates:
Google Pixel 2
Google Pixel
Pixel XL
Google Pixel C
Android Security Rewards (ASR) program
Android Security Rewards (ASR) program is the programme launched by Google under which the company rewards the researchers to find the bugs in the Android security system. A reward money of more than $1.5 million (Rs 95,647,500 approximately) has been distributed to researcher from Google till date for helping to make the Android more secure.