Hacking Tournament Exposes Young Talent

More than 6000 computer geeks assembled at the annual three-day hacking feat in Las Vegas to show corporations, consumers and government agencies how vulnerable their networks are, without the risk of criminal prosecution or financial liabilities. The legal hacking event required the 500 contestants to play several games like “capture the flag” and different Defcon games to crack codes and perform critical tasks such as processing credit card transactions and granting employees remote network access. The organizers said that the objective of the event is to show corporations and consumers that they are vulnerable to online criminals. The event also involved programming machines like robots and lock-cracking tournaments which put everyone from talented 17 year old high schoolers to engineering students in the spotlight. For example, Javadi, a student of computer engineering at Iowa State University in Ames, says he enjoys lock picking for the challenge and because it helps him visualize some of the more intangible aspects of computer programming. He also credits the sport with helping manufacturers make more secure locks. Read more here.