PRNewswire: eWEEK Challenges Public to Hack Web Site

"In its second major test of Web enterprise security, Labs Interactive, by the editors of eWEEK, in conjunction with digital security services firm Guardent, has created an e-commerce site and is challenging the public to hack the site at openhack.com. Prize money of up to $2,500 will be awarded to the first hacker to crack the site which mimics a true corporate e-commerce network, including e-mail, Web server, a database application, remote access and five different operating systems. The challenge goes live on June 26 and runs through the first two weeks of July."

"Openhack.com will allow visitors to attempt to crack security on a large corporate Web site for the following operating systems: Solaris, Windows 2000, Windows NT, OpenBSD and Linux. Cash prizes will be awarded to the first person to corrupt the Oracle database, deface the Web server, hack the e-commerce server or active directory of reroute DNS."

"John Taschek, director of eWEEK Labs, sees the point of this exercise as a way to educate the public on Web site security issues. "We have designed this one-of-a-kind testing to illustrate to our readers where Web sites are probably most vulnerable, how hackers are getting in and how to ultimately build a more secure site," he said. "It's not as important to uncover failures in any particular part of the network as it is to find out how the attacks are taking place."

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