Can hackers crack million-dollar dare?
Published: 06 Dec 2000 09:50 GMT
An Australian company, that claims to have developed the ultimate security-proof system, will soon issue a multi-million dollar dare to the hacking underworld.
With a 30-day deadline, the challenge to crack Secure Systems' Silicon Data Vault technology will be issued by 15 December.
"We don't believe any hacker at all will get through the vault," Secure Systems chief executive, Mike Wynn, told ZDNet.
A successful crack will see US$10,000 (£6,959) donated by Secure Systems to a charity of the hacker's choice, otherwise if the technology isn't penetrated, US$1m (£695,906) will be donated to the "Make a Wish Foundation" when Secure Systems strikes a commercialisation deal that takes the technology to market.
"After [hackers'] first attempt we'll give them the default password to get into the vault," Wynn said. "But they still won't find what they're looking for. That's how sure we are of our product."
Whilst everyone else is trying to solve the problem of hacking and fraud by using heavily encrypted software, the Silicon Data Vault is a hardware firewall that sits between the operating system and the hard drive controlling the actions of the user, according to Wynn.
"Banks are losing tens of millions of dollars to Internet fraud a year," Wynn said, "We believe our device will stop all that."
Three years in development, the Silicon Data Vault was recently unveiled at the E-Security Conference and Exposition in the US.
"Australian companies are not geared up enough to bring this [technology] to the market as quickly as American companies," Wynn claimed.
Configured to meet the needs of the everyday PC user, banking systems, government needs, as well as those of the military, the price tag attached to the Silicon Data Vault will depend on how much security is put through the chip, Wynn said.
"Software is just that -- soft," Wynn said. "We approached this huge worldwide problem of computer security from an entirely different tack: that when hardware meets software, hardware wins," Wynn said.
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