Hackers looking for a vulnerable college network to toy with would be well advised to steer clear of the University of Florida: Two of the institution’s network engineers just took first prize in a prestigious computer-security contest.
The competition, called Capture the Flag, was held in Las Vegas at Defcon 2006, an annual conference frequented by hackers and computer-security experts. In the game—billed by its sponsors as "a knock-down, drag-out cyberninja war"—eight teams battle to defend a server while attacking the servers of their opponents. Jordan Wiens and John H. Sawyer, both network-security engineers at Florida, were part of 1@stPlace, the eight-person team that emerged triumphant.
In its digital incarnation, Capture the Flag doesn’t make for a great spectator sport, but Defcon officials did their best to jazz up the contest: All the teams competed in a large public room while music blared and videos were projected on several walls. —Brock Read
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