Games hackers play

2005-09-01 09:14

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2005/9/1/corpit/11909286&sec=corpit September 1, 2005 HACK In The Box (M) Sdn Bhd (HITB) is organising a two-day hacking competition during this year's HITB Security Conference (HITBSecConf 2005), which will take place from from Sept 26-29 at the Westin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. Called "Capture The Flag" (CtF), the game originated from Defcon IV (www.defcon.org) in 1996, the largest underground hacking convention in the world. In the competition, each participating team (consisting of 2-3 persons) will be given a server to defend, and at the same time, they will launch penetrative attacks against other teams. "The competition tests a security administrator's ability to secure complex systems with unknown but required functionalities," said Meling Mudin, HITB senior security consultant. "The emphasis of the CtF game is on real-world skills and not just pure bred hacking skills," he said. This includes analysing the security posture of a system, finding and exploiting vulnerabilities, writing automated scripts, and keeping a running system alive while under massive attack, he explained. HITBSecConf is a non-profit, homegrown hacking and network security conference, and features hackers from Australia, Canada, Europe, the United States and Asia Pacific. Malaysia Airlines is the Official Airline Partner for this year's conference. According to Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, its founder and HITB chief executive officer, all participants in the CtF game are professional security consultants whose clients include banks and government bodies. "Participating in a CtF game is one of the best ways they can pit their skills against other hackers in a controlled environment," he said. "In previous years, we had participants from Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia," he said, adding that the winning team this year will walk away with a Mac Mini and other prizes. While the CtF is a team-based competition, solo hackers may participate in the Zone-H Hacking Challenge, also held during the HITBSecConf 2005. This challenge is an online hack game where participants are required to overcome three levels of increasing difficulty in a limited time using only a web browser. For more information and to sign up for HITBSecConf 2005, go to http://conference.hackinthebox.org _________________________________________ Attend ToorCon Sept 16-18th, 2005 Convention Center San Diego, California www.toorcon.org

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http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2005/9/1/corpit/11909286&sec=corpit

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