Google this week announced the creation of a COVID-19 grant fund aimed to help bug hunters who participate in its Vulnerability Reward Program (VRP).
The newly introduced grant fund is a temporary expansion of the Internet giant’s Vulnerability Research Grant program, which was introduced in 2015 to recognize the time and efforts of security researchers, even if they do not find vulnerabilities.
With the current COVID-19 pandemic forcing many people to work from home, the expansion is ultimately meant to help keeping users protected, while also supporting Google’s community of security researchers.
“In light of new challenges caused by the coronavirus outbreak, we are expanding this initiative by creating a COVID-19 grant fund,” Google announced.
According to Google, all VRP bug hunters who submitted at least two remunerated reports between 2018 and April 2020 are eligible for a $1,337 research grant.
“We are dedicating these grants to support our researchers during this time. We are committed to protecting our users and we want to encourage the research community to help us identify threats and to prevent potential vulnerabilities in our products,” Google says.
The grants are meant to recognize the efforts of frequent researchers regardless of the result of their reports. However, bugs found during the grant are also eligible for regular rewards.
If the reporters are not interested in monetary gains but wish to donate the grant to an established COVID-19 related charity, Google says it will monetarily match the donations, within its discretion.
The Vulnerability Research Grant program will continue throughout 2020, so even researchers who start bug hunting now could become eligible.
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