Google Chrome finally proved its worth among others. It emerged as a browser that could not be hacked. Recently in Vancouver, computer-security researchers were invited to hack computers using unknown weaknesses in Web browsers at different kinds of games conducted. Tipping Point’s Zero Day Initiative, the sponsors of the contests, which paid researchers to discover security bugs, offered prizes of $10,000 for hacks of all the four browsers including versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome. Chrome proved to be the clear winner, as none even tried to even hack it.
Mr. Aaron Portnoy of TippingPoint said, “People think that their time is better spent finding bugs in more popular software because it’s worth more money. Nevertheless, Chrome, as the newest browser on the market, includes security advances that make it an interesting target.” Linus Upson, Vice President of Engineering for Chrome, shared that Google has put Chrome in a low-privilege mode that runs commands from the Internet in a virtual machine where they are unable to hurt users’ systems. Chrome security method uses ‘sandboxing’ where a single process is given as few rights as possible in order to do the task. Likewise, processes cannot operate between tabs, therefore keeping each tab safely separated from the next.
Though its sad to note that the other browsers were hacked, but at the same time its a relief that Google Chrome was not. It is a speedy browser, which comes with many different available add-ons and customizable features, and is free to download. According to Net Marketshare, Chrome continues to gain users at a rapid pace, now 3rd most popular behind IE8 and Firefox.
Tags: customizable features, firefox, google, ie8, internet explorer, linus upson, security advances, security bugs, security researchers, virtual machine, web browsers