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By silicon.com, 3 July 2003 15:34

COMMENT This weekend a controversial competition is set to take place in which hackers will attempt to cause as much damage as possible in the shortest time. The first group or individual to hack, or crack, 6,000 servers and deface them wins. It's as simple as it is despicable. With this kind of event it is difficult to imagine any kind of justification. Whether the motivation is an attack on capitalism, or whether it falls within the area known as 'hacktivism' is unclear. More than likely it boils down to good old fashioned mischief. Whatever the purported motive though, this is a call to arms to cyber vandals - akin to inviting gangs to go around seeing how many shop windows they can smash or how many flower beds they can trample or bus shelters they can graffiti. Whatever their grievance the world won't be a better place on Monday for their actions. That's not to say there is no place for protest - but in this instance it is clear that any assumed ideology is merely a facade which barely disguises a spiteful and malicious predilection for destroying other people's property. Previous instances of defacement have shown us that these people care little for the victims. If the major corporates and governments pose too stern a test to the hobbyist hackers and instead it is charities, non-profit organisations and small businesses or individuals without the finances to implement robust enough defences who fall victim. Jack Clark, product manager at McAfee, said: "I have a real problem with promoting any kind of criminal activity and that's what appears to be the case with this competition. To invite people to break in to the place of residence of somebody's website is absolutely outrageous." "There can't be any benefit to this competition," he added. The part played by security firm ISS, who announced the event to the public, is also being called into question. ISS has come in for criticism for publicising the event which is now in the public domain after appearing on major US news services over night. "I just hope ISS are spending as much time talking to the police as they are talking to their PR company," said Clark. Other security experts have also come out in criticism of ISS. Rafael Nunez, a hacker turned security consultant, expressed concerns that ISS may have turned a potential non-event into a self-fulfilling prophecy by giving it the publicity the hackers craved. The impact of this competition will only be able to be gauged after the weekend, but for system administrators and IT managers who were perhaps hoping for a quiet weekend the advice is probably don't stray too far from your mobile phone.