Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has hired a crack team of researchers, called Project Zero, to protect the internet users against online virus attacks. Team of Project Zero will have the sole responsibility of enhancing the security along the Internet.
Google to adapt standard procedures
Google Inc’s Chris Evans informed in a blog post that the team will adopt the standard procedures such as locating and reporting large numbers of vulnerabilities.
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“In addition, we’ll be conducting new research into mitigations, exploitation, program analysis – and anything else that our researchers decide is a worthwhile investment,” Evans added. The outcomes of the research will be stored in an external database, and the issues will be reported to the software vendor, and not the third parties. However, after the bug has been fixed, it will be open for anyone to check how long the vendor tool to resolve the issue.
Evans said that the individuals should feel free to use the Internet without being dreaded of any criminal or state agency throwing software bugs to infect the computers, and collecting private information or communications.
What led to the creation of Zero Team?
News followed the event, where part-time researchers from Google and a small Finnish security firm Codenomicon detected a bug in the encryption technology used to secure some of the world’s largest websites. Bug was dubbed as ‘Heartbleed,’ and the researchers said that it was one of the most serious security lax ever discovered as it was managed to keep itself hidden for more than two-years.
Attackers succeeded in exploiting the flawed versions of the open-source software known as OpenSSL, which runs on millions of web-servers, to snip away passwords, credit card details, encryption keys and other sensitive data without leaving any sign. The success of the part-time research laid the foundation for the creation of Project Zero.
Ross Brewer, vice president and managing director for international markets at cyber security firm LogRhythm, said that as an organization pioneering the online conversation, Google is in a strong position to find any issues over the web and should be applauded for doing so. He said that finding out and revealing the bugs and other flaws will save many organizations from dreadful attacks.
However, Brewer, also, asked the individuals not to rely solely on Google to protect their networks.