Google Unveils Project Zero, an Elite Cybersecurity Squad to Fight Hackers 'We're hiring,' the company says of its new security outfit, which will work to maintain cybersecurity across the Internet going beyond Google's own workings on the web.
By Geoff Weiss
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Google loves a good project.
Following in the footsteps of Project Ara, Project Loon and Project Tango, the company has just unveiled a new effort to tackle security issues across the Internet: Project Zero.
Security is such a critical priority, the SEO giant is now ramping up earlier part-time work by self-governing staffers -- which has led to the discovery of bugs like Heartbleed -- into a full-fledged security outfit, the company explained in a blog post yesterday.
With Project Zero, Google is looking to extend beyond its own workings on the web and "will work to improve the security of any software depended upon by large numbers of people."
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Additionally, all security efforts will be undertaken transparently, with every bug "filed in an external database," the company said.
"We will only report bugs to the software's vendor -- and no third parties," Google added. "Once the bug report becomes public (typically once a patch is available), you'll be able to monitor vendor time-to-fix performance, see any discussion about exploitability, and view historical exploits and crash traces."
The name Project Zero refers to a "zero-day" attack or vulnerability, which exploits a previously unknown bug that developers have had no time to patch.
Best of all for computer whizzes who want to harness their abilities for the Internet's greater good? "We're hiring," writes Project Zero's researcher herder, Chris Evans. Interested parties can find out more about the effort on the project's blog.
Related: Why Security Should Be Top of Mind When Creating a Business
