Can hackers crack million-dollar dare?

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/48/ns-19507.html

[It pains me to see contests like this one, Company X offers a big
prize to anyone who can crack their software usually in thirty days or
less, and after thirty days, Company X will get their PR ladies to
crank out a glowing press release that the world's best hackers can't
defeat their their company's product, and soon afterward the sales
guys and gals will be fielding calls to buy this super-secure product.

I could see another can of worms opening up should Secure Systems'
software be compromised in the 30 days by say GForce Pakistan and
seeing Mr. Wynn backpedal over having to fork over $10,000 U.S.D. to
charities aligned with Kashmiri rebels or the PLO.  This might be an
interesting contest to watch. -WK]


Rachel Lebihan, ZDNet Australia News
Wed, 06 Dec 2000 09:50:58 GMT

If you're game for a challenge and desperate for money get hacking!

An Australian company, that claims to have developed the ultimate
security-proof system, will soon issue a multi-million dollar dare to
the hacking underworld.

With a 30-day deadline, the challenge to crack Secure Systems' Silicon
Data Vault technology will be issued by 15 December.

"We don't believe any hacker at all will get through the vault,"
Secure Systems chief executive, Mike Wynn, told ZDNet.

A successful crack will see US$10,000 (6,959) donated by Secure
Systems to a charity of the hacker's choice, otherwise if the
technology isn't penetrated, US$1m (695,906) will be donated to the
"Make a Wish Foundation" when Secure Systems strikes a
commercialisation deal that takes the technology to market.

"After [hackers'] first attempt we'll give them the default password
to get into the vault," Wynn said. "But they still won't find what
they're looking for. That's how sure we are of our product."

Whilst everyone else is trying to solve the problem of hacking and
fraud by using heavily encrypted software, the Silicon Data Vault is a
hardware firewall that sits between the operating system and the hard
drive controlling the actions of the user, according to Wynn.

"Banks are losing tens of millions of dollars to Internet fraud a
year," Wynn said, "We believe our device will stop all that."

Three years in development, the Silicon Data Vault was recently
unveiled at the E-Security Conference and Exposition in the US.

"Australian companies are not geared up enough to bring this
[technology] to the market as quickly as American companies," Wynn
claimed.

Configured to meet the needs of the everyday PC user, banking systems,
government needs, as well as those of the military, the price tag
attached to the Silicon Data Vault will depend on how much security is
put through the chip, Wynn said.

"Software is just that -- soft," Wynn said. "We approached this huge
worldwide problem of computer security from an entirely different
tack: that when hardware meets software, hardware wins," Wynn said.

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