The Pwn2Own hacking competition has earned a legendary reputation in recent years as the place where the best security professionals in the business prove their skills. the most recent Pwn2own challenges have focused primarily on the Web browser, but that’s about to change.
This week, HP hosted its first mobile Pwn2Own hacking competition at the EUSecWest event in Amsterdam. The event challenged security professionals to find and exploit flaws in mobile technology for cash and prize awards.
The contest takes aim at mobile Web browsers, near field communication (NFC) and Short Message Service (SMS), as well as cellular baseband technologies. HP will award a top prize of $100,000 for the first research to produce a cellular baseband exploit. Both SMS and NFC flaws will yield $40,000 each, while a mobile Web browser exploit will earn $20,000.
“Our goal is to help the industry identify and find vulnerabilities, and with this event we’re putting a specific emphasis on the mobile technologies that are prevalent today,” Scott Lambert, director at HP DVLabs told eSecurity Planet.
Read the full story at eSecurity Planet:
Mobile Emphasis at HP’s Pwn2Own
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
