Meet The Competition

[Vin DSL]

The winners of the Pwnie Awards were announced on August 6, 2008 at a ceremony at the BlackHat USA conference in Las Vegas.

2008 Pwnie Award Winners (1hr. 10 min.)

[Spathiphyllum]

Do you ever go to those white hat/black hat conferences?

[Vin DSL]

No, but I might do it next year...

How about you?!?!?

[Spathiphyllum]

Nah. Not yet. I think it would be interesting, but I'm just not plugged in to that scene enough to make a trip out of it.

It's kind of funny the way the black hats operate. There was a convention recently where there was a section set aside for the press that was supposed to be secure. A bloggers area I think it was. Anyway, one group of black hats exploited the convention's wireless network (for public use) by running a proxy and routing other black hat traffic through their own "server." One member went around filming people's response surreptitiously as their laptops started showing porn that was being served from the proxy. Clearly embarrassing and just about everyone was left floundering, trying to diagnose their system.

The funny part was that they, the black hats, were upset that they had been exploited in what was supposed to be a safe area. The hypocrisy here is off the scale. Black hat crackers complaining about getting cracked.

I love it.

I guess I'd prefer to go to see white hats if I ever got the urge. Dealing with black hats would make me feel dirty... unless, of course, I was a white hat performing some social engineering. Then it might be fun.