Contest slammed for encouraging hackers

**Glaswegian** · 04-28-2008, 02:30 PM

Anti-virus companies are angry at a planned new event at a major security conference in the US.

Called Race-to-Zero, the contest will invite visitors to the Defcon hacker conference to find new ways of beating anti-virus software.

Contestants will get some sample virus code that they must modify and try to sneak past the anti-virus products.

Awards will be given for "Most elegant obfuscation," "Dirtiest hack of an obfuscation," "Comedy value" and "Most deserving of beer," contest organisers say.

The contest was announced Friday. Security vendors began panning it immediately, saying it will simply help the bad guys learn some new tricks.

"It will do more harm than good," said Paul Ferguson, a researcher with anti-virus vendor TrendMicro. "Responsible disclosure is one thing, but now actually encouraging people to do this as a contest is a little over the top."

http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...S&NewsID=12106

04-28-2008, 02:30 PM	#1 (permalink)
Glaswegian Moderator/ Rangemaster TSF Academy; Analyst, Security Team; Oor Wullie; TSF Surgeon and Resident Comic Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Glasgow Posts: 20,391 OS: Win XP Pro SP3 My System Blog Entries: 9	Contest slammed for encouraging hackers Anti-virus companies are angry at a planned new event at a major security conference in the US. Called Race-to-Zero, the contest will invite visitors to the Defcon hacker conference to find new ways of beating anti-virus software. Contestants will get some sample virus code that they must modify and try to sneak past the anti-virus products. Awards will be given for "Most elegant obfuscation," "Dirtiest hack of an obfuscation," "Comedy value" and "Most deserving of beer," contest organisers say. The contest was announced Friday. Security vendors began panning it immediately, saying it will simply help the bad guys learn some new tricks. "It will do more harm than good," said Paul Ferguson, a researcher with anti-virus vendor TrendMicro. "Responsible disclosure is one thing, but now actually encouraging people to do this as a contest is a little over the top." http://www.techworld.com/security/ne...S&NewsID=12106 __________________ Iain - Defender of the Haggis and all things Scottish. I don't help by PM - post in the Forums. Ad-Aware::SpywareBlaster::SpyBot::SpywareGuard::SnoopFree::AVG Free::HOSTS File::HijackThis::Donate::5 Steps For Infected PCs