Google had been holding Pwnium, an annual bug-hunting competition, for years to encourage researchers to find security holes in Chrome’s browser and OS. However, Pwnium has changed. Now instead of holding it for one day in Vancouver, Pwnium will be held year-round everywhere with even bigger money prizes! For more details on the new Pwnium program, click here:: To infinity and beyond! Unimaginably large bug-hunting prize fund announced by Google
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Google Revamps CAPTCHA with “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHAâ€
Google has done away with the CAPTCHA system that was designed to prevent spammers and bots from accessing websites after it was revealed that bots were starting to decipher the distorted text. The new “reCAPTCHA†was unveiled and is able turn away bots while offering users a simpler way to access sites by merely clicking “I am not a robot.†For more on reCAPTCHA, click here:: Google kills CAPTCHAs: Are we human or are we spammer?
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Shots Fired: Google Releases ‘Firing Range’ to Test Web App Security
Last week, Google unveiled “Firing Range†to the public to test web application security scanners for a variety of vulnerabilities. Rather than just detect the presence of a bug, Firing Range can exploit the bug and detect the results from that exploitation as well. For a full article on this open source tool, click here:: Google Releases Open Source Tool For Testing Web App Security Scanners
Put the Dog Down: The POODLE SSLv3 Vulnerability
Late last week, the news had broken that POODLE SSLv3 had been attacked and the system compromised. A vulnerability within POODLE SSLv3 allows attackers to decrypt encrypted website connections, allowing them access to online accounts, social networks, and email. Google, Firefox, and other browsers are currently disabling it until a solution is reached. For more information and a full report, please click here.
Japan Joins Europe in Google Takedown Rush
Last week a Tokyo court issued an injunction requiring Google to take down 120 search results that implicated a Japanese citizen with past crimes. The injunction was requested when the plaintiff felt his life would be endangered by the results that would come up when his name was looked up on the search engine. This is only yet another court ruling that has serious ramifications for the website.
While Google is reviewing the preliminary injunction and the ruling is provisional, it still opens doors for further “forget me†requests like the several thousand that came in from Europe when a similar law passed. While Google is doing its best to follow local laws, “being forgotten†can only go so far. While Google can “take down†and hide URLs, it does not have the power to make them fully disappear. In fact, a website titled “Hidden from Google†puts up repository links that are censored by search engines. For more details on this story, click here.