Cylant Announces “Compromise This!” Challenge

The “Compromise This!” challenge invites hackers and crackers to attempt the compromise of a highly vulnerable web server. Ordinarily, this would be the work of a few minutes at most. However, the target server is protected by CylantSecure, Cylant’s Intrusion Detection System. The first person or team that can successfully compromise the server will be given $5000.

Connecting a server to the Internet today is a risky proposition, sites are scanned an average of 14 times each day. Worse, every three days an intrusion will be attempted. Companies realize this they are deploying intrusion detection systems at record rates. Detecting an intrusion is only half the battle though. The real goal is to prevent attackers from succeeding, and that requires reaction in milliseconds, not waiting for a security administrator to respond to a page.

challenge.cylant.com demonstrates the level of security provided by CylantSecure. By securing systems in spite of the vulnerable software they run, CylantSecure slashes risk exposure and security costs. “The goal is to interrupt the vulnerability cycle — preventing vulnerabilities in software from allowing attackers to cause financial or material harm to their targets”, says Scott Wimer, Vice President of Operations at Cylant. “Security doesn’t need to be a constant vulnerability-exploit-patch cycle. CylantSecure changes that.”

The web site http://challenge.cylant.com/ has the full details of the “Compromise This!” challenge.