Hacking Challenge Winners Allege $43,000 Contest Rip-Off
from the oops dept
Over the past few years there have been a number of "hacking contests", and while not everyone agrees that they're worthwhile, they do seem to attract participants. One company, Argus, ran five of those contests. The first four gave them lots of publicity, but no official security breach. However, the last one, didn't go quite so well. The contest promised the winners $48,000. However, a year and a half after the contest ended, the winners have received only about $5,000. It seems the company was more intent on promoting their products through the "contest" than ever actually paying any money to anyone who won.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Criminals prey on each other
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Criminals prey on each other
Next are you going to tell me that hacking my own computer is criminal?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Criminals prey on each other
I'll just say that when you do bad things, there are worse predators, police or criminal, waiting to prey on you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Criminals prey on each other
And how does hacking your own computer even possibly relate to sampling cherries in the supermarket? You own your own computer, the supermarket owns the cherries. You don't have a legal right to "sample" something you don't own. You have every legal right to "sample" something you do own.
You don't happen to work for the music or movie industry, do you?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Criminals prey on each other
In short, just because we own something does not absolve us of guilt.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Criminals prey on each other
Even if other people have accounts on a computer that *I* own, the computer is mine...and "hacking" it in and of itself isn't wrong, or even illegal...although there are ethical considerations as to other peoples accounts on MY machine...but in the end, it is MY machine and I'm allowed to do what I want with it...it isn't wrong to tinker and experiment.
To extend that further, IF I give permission to someone I know to test my defenses, this is not wrong, nor is it illegal either...and this is the case here. Basically this company said "we have the best defense solution for computer networks, to prove it, we invite people to try and hack us"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Criminals prey on each other
- tamper with the tachyometer to show fewer miles
- tamper with the seat belts so they will come undone in a crash
- put glass that shatters on the windshield
I could probably rig my computer to deliver a powerful electric shock through the keyboard to someone who doesn't type in the correct password, but that's probably illegal as well. Or write programs to crack license keys of programs I'm supposed to pay for.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]