Google will pay $20,000 to the first researcher who successfully exploits its Chrome browser at this year's Pwn2Own hacking contest.

The award is the largest ever for the annual challenge, which will kick off for the fifth time at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 9.

At this year's Pwn2Own, researchers will pit exploits against machines running Windows 7 or Mac OS X as they try to bring down Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari and Chrome.

The first researchers to hack IE, Firefox and Safari will receive $15,000 and the machine running the browser. The prizes are $5,000 more than those given for exploiting browsers at the last Pwn2Own contest, and three times more than the 2009 awards.

"We've upped the ante this time around and the total cash pool allotted for prizes has risen to a whopping $125,000," said Aaron Portnoy, the manager of HP TippingPoint's security research team.

Full story: Computerworld