Ever watched one of those action movies or something similar where you see geeky hackers trying to crack systems to make money? Well if you have you will usually associate their actions with that of the illegal and non productive. However; many companies in the past including the government, have purposely hired these nefarious individuals to help them further secure their intellectual property and technology systems. (Photo Credit: kryptyk)
Microsoft has launched their “Blue hat prize” academic challenge for creative ideas for computer security. They announced this as the annual Black Hat Hacker conference where the world’s best hackers come together to discuss security trends, vulnerabilities, news, and congregate.
In main stream media there are two types of hackers: white hat and black hat. White hats are known as those who learn to hack for security sake such as to help a company secure its infrastructure where as black hat hackers are known to be those who do it for criminal purposes or with the wrong intentions.
Read more on ZDNet.com
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/microsoft-to-hackers-cash-for-exploit-mitigation-inventions/9188
Other related links from ZDNet.com:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/black-hat-10-cant-miss-hacks-and-presentations/9132
“BlueHat Prize: A New twist on security research incentives” article on ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/bluehat-prize-a-new-twist-on-security-research-incentives/9194
“Google spends $17,000 on Chrome browser vulnerabilities” article on ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/google-spends-17000-on-chrome-browser-vulnerabilities/9199