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Computer Attack and Defense As Spectator Sport

Posted by timothy on from the laser-pointer-wielding-audience dept.

zanbar writes "There was a Slashdot story in March about the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin -- using WiFi in a theater. On Jan 11th, an event at the Alamo will combine video with wireless. LinuxTopGun.org gives details about a series of computer network attack competitions going on tour through North America. They bring in a Linux/Apache web server, a bunch of teams bring in their laptops and attack it over a wireless network. Teams take turns onstage defending the server and then answering audience Q&A about their strategies. MCs interview competitors and explain network attacks to the audience. DJs mix and VJs flip live video with network visualization software -- animations like in the movie 'Hackers.' Judges award points for how well competitors perform, both online and onstage, and the top teams win prizes... It's like watching computer attacks as a live sport. There is also some discussion taking place in #ltg on efnet."

10 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. Will I be able to pick up chicks at this event? by ostiguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Magic 8 ball points to very doubtful.

    ostiguy

  2. Jesus Christ Ma, get off my back by kfg · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm not a crook or a terrorist for God's sake. I'm in *training.* Coke is talking contract and they're considering me for a color commentator position with "Monday Night Crack."

    Oh stop crying Ma. That does *not* mean I'm a junkie.

    Jesus I've gotta move out of the basement and find my own place.

    KFG

  3. Ping? Ow! by LinkDJm · · Score: 5, Funny

    I want to see a DDoS illustration using people and ping pong balls. Now that's edutainment!

  4. Net visualizations? by .@. · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I wonder what network visualization tools they're using? It'd be interesting to see what visualization tools are compelling enough to use in a spectator sport.

    I checked the site, but there was only a link to one.

    Does anyone else know of any dynamic, visually-interesting (and preferably free) visualization tools? Something like this might be a big hit if done at conferences and the like. I'd like to introduce them to a few I attend.

    --
    .@.
    1. Re:Net visualizations? by Mike1024 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Hey,

      I wonder what network visualization tools they're using? It'd be interesting to see what visualization tools are compelling enough to use in a spectator sport.

      According to the (not very impressive) website, they're using HackerPacket 1.0.

      Description:
      HackerPacket is a tcpdump utility inspired by "The Gibson"

      Features:
      Uses Winpcap for packet trapping
      New Towers spring up on new host connections
      Packets are designated by particles coming from the buildings.
      Raw incoming packet information is displayed on the towers, along with IP address
      w,s,a,d to move and e to lock the camera.

      So apparently it will literally include animations like in the movie 'Hackers.'

      Michael

      --
      "Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
  5. Junkyard Wars? by SHEENmaster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Junkyard wars is 12 hours long (10building+1tweeking+1competing), but when slimmed down to an hour TV show it is one of the best things on tv.

    Why?

    Because they talk with the teams, and explain the engineering behind the plans. I think that by having teams rather than individuals compete, with a team radio or something that the audience could listen to it would be worth attending/watching.

    How long does my younger brother have to wait for the cartoon?

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  6. Back in the day ... by HealYourChurchWebSit · · Score: 5, Funny

    Laptops used attack over a wireless network? Teams take turns onstage defending the server?

    Bah, Feh!

    Whatever happened to the good-old-days of experimental theatre when the audience was encouraged to take off _their_ clothes and join the fun onstage?!

    --
    --- have you healed your church website?
  7. Linux Top Gun by yar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Naysayer's to the contrary, it's actually an interesting event.

    I attended part of the last LTG at Mojo's Daily Grind. There were many, many people there participating and watching, and you have a lot of opportunity to meet new people. The actual "hacking" was slow, but there was music and a projector screen showing what was going on, if you could follow it. One of the better features was that after their attempts each team would have a Q and A session with the audience. I'm looking forward to attending the next one at the Alamo...

  8. How are they going to make this interesting? by Mike1024 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hey,

    My main question would be: How are they going to make this interesting?

    I mean, computer security usually means good network structure, strong passwords, turning off services that aren't required, and keeping up to date with patches. And they almost certainly won't allow rewiring (i.e. firewall installation).

    And the red team institutes a password requiring passwords to be 18 charachters long, and not found in any dictionary! The crowd goes wild!

    Oh, and the blue team schedules an automatic twice daily apt-get of all updates! Surely the red team are done for?!

    But no, the Red team have found a finger daemon they missed, and deactivated it! This is turning into a very close contest!...

    Of course, the website talks about support by models from Hot-Tool Fashion Crew. So it could be good.

    But it'll be hard.

    Michael

    --
    "Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
    1. Re:How are they going to make this interesting? by meridian-gh · · Score: 5, Interesting
      At CTF at Defcon the Ghettohackers had the teams attacking each other, instead of a central server. They were given an custom distro of linux that was specifically engineered to be horribly insecure. In addition, in order to score points, they had to keep some of these insecure services running. So they couldn't just boot off their CD Image of OpenBSD, and sit there and chuckle. They had to keep things like Finger, and Telnet working and functional in order to get points.

      This meant that the "action" starts off hard and heavy. We saw people rooting and getting rooted right away.

      To make things a little more interesting, we designed the scoreboard after the NASDAQ Big Board, and projected it on two walls. The teams' scores were displayed as stock prices. The scoreboard was also played over the Alexis Park television system. We had news updates on the status of the teams every so often.

      Of course, we didn't broadcast the action as a cute little 'gibson' visualization. Nor were their live DJs (We used pre-set playlists). However, people still seemed to get a kick out of it. You could see the whole room go quiet and stare when a news update would come on...

      Next year is going to be even better (Yes, this is a bit of shameless promotion).

      R