Pwn2Own hacking contest offers record $560k in prizes

HP TippingPoint, the long-time organiser of the annual Pwn2Own hacking contest, announced on Friday that it will offer cash awards exceeding half a million dollars for this year’s competition, more than five times the amount paid out last year.

The 2013 edition of the contest will offer $560,000 in potential prize money to hackers who demonstrate exploits of previously unknown vulnerabilities in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE), Safari, or the Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash or Oracle Java browser plug-ins.