OpenHack III, a computer-hacking contest sponsored by eWeek magazine, will feature some stiff competition when it opens Monday. In one corner is Savoy, Illinois-based Argus Systems Group, maker of a computer security product called PitBull that the company claims is virtually . . .
OpenHack III, a computer-hacking contest sponsored by eWeek magazine, will feature some stiff competition when it opens Monday. In one corner is Savoy, Illinois-based Argus Systems Group, maker of a computer security product called PitBull that the company claims is virtually impenetrable.

In the other is an army of hackers who will try to break into a PitBull-protected system and win a $50,000 prize, supplied by Argus.

Hacking contests have been going on since the mid-1980s, but Argus has raised the stakes this time in an effort to validate a product it believes -- and many experts agree -- is the Fort Knox of computer security.

Hackers generally try to access computer operating systems by exploiting holes in the applications the systems run, and most security products try to plug those holes. But PitBull protects the operating systems themselves, making it virtually impossible for a hacker to gain access.

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