Defcon Hacking Contest Targets Big Corporations (VIDEO)

The world's biggest conference of so-called 'White Hat' hackers (those who do not engage in malicious hacking) has taken place in Las Vegas, and it has given some big companies food for thought.

A 'social engineering' contest at the conference, which involves tricking people into revealing information that leaves their systems vulnerable, revealed that some of the world's biggest corporations were susceptible to attack.

Comments

[meleagrid]

07:22 PM on 08/09/2011

suppose the negative publicity Oracle has gotten will end up in a lot of heads rolling there. More folks for the employment line? Probably not cause the staff failed to exercise reasonable diligence while doing their job, ergo don't qualify for benefits. Alas, rats! What a draconian world we inhabit.

[Mobymom]

09:23 AM on 08/09/2011

DefCon has become more important as the years roll by and we put more and more of our info online. Think about how much of your life is now in a database somewhere - everything from your medical records and financial info to the stuff you put on your Facebook account.

I had a site of mine hacked one night and turned into a "phishing" site with phoney pages for several major banks. It was frightening to think of how easily these guys got past multiple layers of security provided by my host and the software I was running. And equally frightening to think of all the people who may have given them personal info and logins through those sites because they don't know how to look at the real address showing in the browser address bar.

People are the first and last bastion against hacking and therein lies the problem as this article points out.

[trollinabucket]

07:23 AM on 08/09/2011

did Murdock hire any of these people in the past?

[nauticalman]

07:08 AM on 08/09/2011

..."A writer for the Enquirer said..."
HOLD IT, WAIT JUST A MINUTE!
You're getting your sources from a writer of a gossip columnist?

[gbandry]

07:31 AM on 08/09/2011

"The Inquirer" is a European computer type mag.....not the"Nat Enquire."

[vuduvampirninjawitch]

06:58 AM on 08/09/2011

And a nerd shall lead them.