Pants Full of Unix

http://www.snapgear.com/linuxworldhackercontestrules.html

So, first off, this is Yet Another security company trying to show off how un-hackable their wares are by having people pound on them, but in an environment they, the security company, control. So of course no one's going to walk away with free stuff.

But the contest rules are completely ridiculous. For instance:

• Viral attacks are acceptable but attacks of any kind through Port 80 will tend to receive lower points from the judges.

What does port 80 have to do with it? Their product is a VPN concentrator. Duh?

• Attacks that utilize utilities or programs not already installed on the provided machines will receive lower points.

Oh, so actually being a hacker (as in, one who creates things with computers) will lower your score. Sign me right the fuck up, jackasses!

• Contestants will be permitted to use their own laptops but will receive lower points if they do so.

Yeah, because operating in a desktop environment with which you're familiar, and that you've set up to your taste so that you can work efficiently, is never an option in the really-real world.

• Any contestant attacking either client machine will be automatically disqualified.

Because their threat model doesn't accept of internal attacks, only those evil hackers at the gates.

::sigh::

I really would have expected something like LinuxWorld to be above this juvenile bullshit. Oh well. I guess it's just one vendor… but still.