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Moronic Hacking Contest Ends In Free-For-All

Posted by chrisd on from the stupid-marketing-tricks-end-badly dept.

atomgiant writes "ZDNet is running an interesting article about the KDWorks hacking contest that has gone bad, or good, depending on your perspective. Entertaining read in any event." I think that Bruce Schneier has said it best on the value of contests such as this one. That the registration server was compromised I think is a telling comment on the value of whole site security.

10 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. DEFCON, HOPE, etc by totallygeek · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Do many companies feel that these are more beneficial to send employees to (IT nerds, information security people, etc) than some of the security training courses/seminars we all get junk mail from? I am working really hard for my company to send me to Red Hat's firewall school, DEFCON, and then SANS. What is the general concensus?

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    Click here or here.
    1. Re:DEFCON, HOPE, etc by totallygeek · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Security seminars are geared so that everyone learns, cons are geared so that people who already know can have fun.


      I am finding myself unable to get anything out of going to seminars. So, maybe I am closing that gap between needing to learn basics and picking up information at a conference. It is tough when I am told that I must attend training, and it is boring information about ports and services and maybe something about some Windows software I will never use that can do "what is called a port scan."


      Maybe I will go to DEFON or the like and see what I can input and bring back...

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      Click here or here.
  2. Is it hacking when invited? by AIM-9X · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It seems a little ambiguous - if you are invited to hack, is that a crime?

    Granted, there are some thresholds never to be crossed. "Sure, you can shoot me, you won't get in trouble" etc.

    Nonetheless, I'd be sure to get written permission from the hackee.

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    ***
    This is my Sig. This is my Glock, this is my Walther, and this is my Beretta.
    Any questions?
  3. Stealing Links? by nirvdrum · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ok, take for granted that not everyone here goes to Freshmeat everyday (as is always the constant source of bickering when a new kernel is released), but I've seen an ever growing trend where someone just scans down to the SecurityFocus links on Freshmeat, and then posts them here as original stories. Please stop doing that. That is all.

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    If there was a "-1 Not Funny", that'd be my most used mod.
  4. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I wouldn't say that it's to get them into jail... But I'm sure using a "contest" like this wouldn't go beyond what "Homeland Security" would do to find potential "threats", so they can begin to keep tabs on them.

    just a thought...while it's still free to have one...

    a terrorist
    (...at least according to the USA PATRIOT ACT)

  5. Interesting thing about the site... by jerkychew · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...It's not ZDnet.com. Look at the web address - the domain is zdnet.com.com

    zdnet.com - 128.11.45.117
    zdnet.com.com - 64.124.237.140

    I don't have time to investigate further, but could it be that the article itself is a hack? Or does zdnet own the com.com domain?

    1. Re:Interesting thing about the site... by Shaheen · · Score: 3, Interesting

      C|Net owns the com.com domain. They centralize around that. News.com is news.com.com, etc.

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      You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
  6. Re:You can't always get what you want, but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting


    Actually, that's how Houdini died! He was bragging about how well trained his stomache muscles were -- told some guy to punch him as hard as he could. Trouble was, the guy hit him before he was ready...

  7. Yeah, but... by athmanb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A real webserver usually runs a couple of different dynamic page scripts (Perl, PHP, ASP, whatever). And they are usually the key point to break in.

  8. thttpd - "Not real world"? by Latrell+Sprewell · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Originally posted by noahm:
    You won't likely see a real-world web site run on thttpd or something.


    Voyeurweb (porn), one of the most heavily used sites (in visitors and bandwidth usage) on the 'Net, has been using thttpd v2.20x for a long time...

    Netcraft search results for Voyeurweb