Google's ready to give away over $2.7 million to folks that hack Chrome OS ...

But not if you hack from the comfort of your own home. Instead, you'll have to travel to the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver this March to showcase your skills at Google's Pwnium 4 competition. For those who aren't familiar, Google's been holding these Pwnium contests for years as a means to crowdsource the finding of security bugs in both the Chrome browser and Chrome OS.

This year, like last year, Google's offering $110,000 for each 'browser or system-level compromise in guest mode or as a logged-in user, delivered via a web page,' and $150k to anyone who can 'compromise with device persistence: guest to guest with interim reboot, delivered via a web page.' We don't understand exactly what that means, but we feel certain that with so many dollars at stake, there will be no shortage of interested parties who do. Plus, there are 'significant' bonuses available for 'particulary impressive or surprising' exploits -- so feel free to get creative, folks. Would-be winners should also know that the offers are good for hacks performed on the ARM-based HP Chromebook 11 or the Intel-packing Acer C720, and you've gotta register by 5PM Pacific Time on March 10th to compete. No time like the present, y'all.