DefCon: Ethical Hacking Competition Enhances Cybersecurity Expertise

An ethical hacking contest at the annual DefCon conference in Las Vegas is aiming to promote better security practice. The Root Fu contest pits eight teams - including some experts from US federal agencies - against each other in a . . . An ethical hacking contest at the annual DefCon conference in Las Vegas is aiming to promote better security practice. The Root Fu contest pits eight teams - including some experts from US federal agencies - against each other in a test of network defence and hacking skills. Each team has to defend their own server and applications while trying to break into the servers of the seven other teams.

Crispin Cowan, chief scientist at Linux security seller Immunix and the leader of the Immunix team, said: "This sort of adversarial testing shows what is possible and not - with security. We value this competition, because we think it is a better evaluation of security than common criteria."

Such comments conflict with tough talk from top-level US. officials who still look at hackers as a threat. Laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act have focused on punishing hackers. But knowledgeable security experts see practicing such skills with Root Fu-like challenges as a necessary way to improve security.

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