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American Idol for Security Geeks

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stoned-for-bad-security-even-today dept.

Ant writes to tell us SearchSecurity.com has an article touting the latest "reality show" idea from the Georgia Tech College of Computing, Information Security Center, and Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center. The "Tiger Team" competition promises to be an "American Idol for security geeks." Students "prep, sweat and show their stuff while a panel of critics decides their fates. But unlike the popular 'reality' TV show, judges aren't determining who can best carry a tune. Instead they weigh students' ideas for making information security more user-friendly, with $50,000 -- enough cash to fund a project for 12 months -- hanging in the balance."

6 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. $50K for 12 months? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Can you even get ONE developer of any cred for that?

    1. Re:$50K for 12 months? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      sure, they're called grad students

  2. TALC? Easy to bypass. by khasim · · Score: 4, Insightful
    But with TALC, according to Ahamad, folks browsing the Internet will be provided with a visual safety score (between one and 10) that rates Web sites they browse based on other users' experiences. The ratings system will be modeled after feedback systems used to gauge things like trustworthiness of eBay traders.
    So, a new site goes online and, immediately, the owner has a bunch of 'bots rate it as "extremely safe A++++".

    That's not going to be very effective without some means of identifying/limiting who gets to rate a site.
  3. This sounds lame and scammish by nettdata · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is lame.

    It sounds more like a VC "talent search", where the $50k MIGHT be enough cash to pay one person a mac-and-cheese salary and get a business plan and some collateral marketing done to get properly financed.

    Or, it could be a "anything you submit will become our property" type "scam", where some grad student has a unique approach that this group then becomes the owner of for a mere $50k. They can then take the idea and run with it, and reap the benefits.

    All in all, sounds like something I'd not be lining up for.

    --



    $0.02 (CDN)
  4. American Inventor? by antdude · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hmmph, editors removed my brief comment.

    Does anyone think American Inventor fits better instead of American Idol for this story? It seems like this story is about inventing.

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  5. Re:I call shenanigans! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "Are you being offered something for nothing? If yes, you are in a bad neighborhood."

    I've never paid for anything on the internet... most of the best sites (to me) don't even have adverts. And what about linux!