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Defcon social engineering contest stirs concerns |
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Source: CSO Online - Posted by Anthony Pell
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A capture-the-flag-style competition slated to take place at Defcon later this month has raised eyebrows at a number of companies who are concerned they will be embarrassed or negatively impacted in some way. CSO first reported the CTF challenge earlier this month in Defcon contest to spotlight social engineering. The challenge asks contestants to collect information about a "target" company, which they are assigned to by contest coordinators at the web site social-engineer.org.
"In the excitement some have expressed concern that contestants might act improperly or that government, companies or individuals might be adversely impacted. We want to put these concerns to rest," officials with social-engineer.org said in a release, reacting to the fervor over the event.
Chris Hadnagy, one of the site's founders, said he decided to issue the statement after hearing that due to the fear generated, many contestants who work for larger corporations were threatened with termination if they participated in the CTF. He stressed that the purpose of the contest is to raise awareness of the threat of social engineering, and challenge contestants to come up with creative, legal ways of obtaining information from companies — not to embarrass anyone or do anything that would cause target companies to feel victimized.
Read this full article at CSO Online
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