Hello-
Many of you have probably heard about the hacking competition in Vancouver scheduled for next month. It seems like a Linux hackers will be put against Windows and OSX hackers to try and comprise each others systems. Can someone explain how this is going to work, and what the rules are?
thanks,
LN75

No idea, but the only sane way I can think of is to try and hack (crack) some "base" systems which are not hardened. That's stupid too, because (at least in the Linux side of world) there are a lot of distributions => combinations, so it's not the same as a Windows or Leopard OS - one combination of Linux operating system could be different from another. Or if they allow hardened operating systems, where's the limit - what prevents them from sinking their Vista boxes in 10m thick seamless metal containers that won't open without some heavy machinery, or encrypting everything and eating the key?

Well, I hope they've got some sensible "rules" there that try to make the "contest" fair between the three..I doubt if it's possible, but anyway. All of them have their own strengths and weaknesses that aren't, in my point of view, comparable.

Will be interesting to see the results, however..

I'm sure that it will sell advertising.

It is certainly not going to cover any new territory, because the simple fact of the matter is that security vulnerabilities in all three systems (and more) are subject to intensive "white hat" scrutiny and disclosure every single day.

The odds are nonetheless excellent that some usable headline-fodder will be "unearthed," scandalous-enough to sell a suitable amount of advertising.

Now if they have physical access to those computers, then it's game over.