[ISN] Games hackers play

[InfoSec News]

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2005/9/1/corpit/11909286&sec=corpit

September 1, 2005

HACK In The Box (M) Sdn Bhd (HITB) is organising a two-day hacking
competition during this year's HITB Security Conference (HITBSecConf
2005), which will take place from from Sept 26-29 at the Westin Hotel,
Kuala Lumpur.

Called "Capture The Flag" (CtF), the game originated from Defcon IV
(www.defcon.org) in 1996, the largest underground hacking convention
in the world.

In the competition, each participating team (consisting of 2-3
persons) will be given a server to defend, and at the same time, they
will launch penetrative attacks against other teams.

"The competition tests a security administrator's ability to secure
complex systems with unknown but required functionalities," said
Meling Mudin, HITB senior security consultant.

"The emphasis of the CtF game is on real-world skills and not just
pure bred hacking skills," he said.

This includes analysing the security posture of a system, finding and
exploiting vulnerabilities, writing automated scripts, and keeping a
running system alive while under massive attack, he explained.

HITBSecConf is a non-profit, homegrown hacking and network security
conference, and features hackers from Australia, Canada, Europe, the
United States and Asia Pacific. Malaysia Airlines is the Official
Airline Partner for this year's conference.

According to Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, its founder and HITB chief
executive officer, all participants in the CtF game are professional
security consultants whose clients include banks and government
bodies.

"Participating in a CtF game is one of the best ways they can pit
their skills against other hackers in a controlled environment," he
said.

"In previous years, we had participants from Brunei, Singapore and
Malaysia," he said, adding that the winning team this year will walk
away with a Mac Mini and other prizes.

While the CtF is a team-based competition, solo hackers may
participate in the Zone-H Hacking Challenge, also held during the
HITBSecConf 2005.

This challenge is an online hack game where participants are required
to overcome three levels of increasing difficulty in a limited time
using only a web browser.

For more information and to sign up for HITBSecConf 2005, go to
http://conference.hackinthebox.org