Pwn2Own Smartphone Hacking Contest kicks off next Month in Vancouver
By Wilson • Mar 2nd, 2009 • Category: UncategorizedNext month, on March 18th a hacking contest is scheduled for launch at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. The contest will invite various hackers for a dual-track hacking challenge where, if anyone breaks the code of most popular smartphones, including the Apple iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, they will get a handsome amount of $10,000 as the prize.
The contest is called Pwn2Own contest and is sponsored by 3Com Inc. The Pwn2Own is not making its debut. A similar kind of contest was launched two years back challenging the hackers for breaking into the Apple’s Mac OS and Microsoft’s Windows operating system. This year the contest will primarily focus on popular smartphones like the iPhone, but also Windows Mobile models like the Toshiba Portege G810. According to Terri Forslof, security response manager at 3Com Inc.’s TippingPoint unit, “Mobile is a new frontier of sorts. We’ve seen mobile exploits in the past, but we still don’t see a lot of focus in that area. More and more, people are taking computing on the go and rely on these devices for e-mail and accessing the Web. So it seemed prudent to have a look at them, and the contest is a good forum for that.”
The contest will challenge hackers against five smartphones operating systems including Windows Mobile, Google’s Android, Symbian and the OS used by Apple iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry. Whoever will be the first in hacking any of the smartphone OS will get the device with a one-year service contract. Each subsequent successful hacker will get cash prize.
Tags for this article: smartphone, blackberry, contest
