Microsoft offers big money prize for foiling hackers
04 Aug 2011
Las Vegas: Software giant Microsoft has launched a contest aimed at countering the hacker menace which will offer prize money for development of innovative solutions to foil cyber-attacks. The premier Blue Hat Prize competition was launched by the company at a major Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas.
"As the risk of criminal attacks on private and government computer systems continues to increase, Microsoft recognizes the need to stimulate research in the area of defensive computer security technology," said Microsoft Trustworthy Computer Group general manager Matt Thomlinson.
"Our interest is to promote a focus on developing innovative solutions rather than discovering individual issues," he continued.
Microsoft will now offer prizes for solutions that cover entire types of cyber-attacks instead of paying simple "bounties" to those that discover individual computer bugs.
Blue Hat promised more than $250,000 dollars in cash and other prizes to software savants as young as 14 years old.
The theme for the first year of the contest was preventing hacks exploiting computer memory vulnerabilities.
Microsoft said it hoped the contest would inspire contributions from researchers, security professionals, and even young hackers.
"Some of the value in this prize is beyond money; it is inspiring not just the current generation but the next generation," said Microsoft lead security strategist Katie Moussouris.