Technically Speaking

12 computer experts participated in Singapore’s best hacker contest. The 12 were divided into six two-man teams in which they had to defend their network and attack other networks at the same time. The contest lasted 7 hours and the top hacker’s prize is a DVD burner and some computer classes. (As if they really need computer classes.)

“It’s a very realistic scenario,” said Julian Ho, the organizer of the government-backed contest. “Most security professionals engage in some kind of ‘dark art’ … Computer espionage is a very big thing.”

The contestants hailed from Brunei, China, Myanmar and Singapore, but their identities couldn’t be revealed because they all work in the computer security business, organizers said. All entrants had to pass a preliminary competition.

Teams were not allowed to use the Internet as a hacking tool, only computers and modems.

By Friday afternoon, the Brunei team — dubbed “Frozen Throne” — was leading.

Quote Source

Asia has a pretty bad record of hack attacks in recent years. Penalties for hacking are relatively mild, being jailed for up to three years or fined up to $5,852 under Singapore’s Computer Misuse Act. Organizers of the challenge are hopeful that techniques used by the experts can help in developing means for protecting networks.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 20th, 2004 at 9:29 am and is filed under Digital Underground. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.