$10K to Hack Your SmartPhone

ZDNet
Admittedly I was not in attendance at this year’s CanSecWest Security Conference, but as CNet.com confirms big money was being offered to hackers to exploit mobile devices. According to the article, “That innocent-looking mobile phone you use to call your mother and check e-mail represents the next frontier for malicious hackers, though it eluded researchers who stood to earn $10,000 for exploiting a smartphone at the CanSecWest security conference this week. TippingPoint Technologies, which sponsors a Pwn2Own hacking contest each year at the event, was offering the prize money for each successful exploit of an iPhone, BlackBerry, and phones running Google's Android, Windows Mobile, and Symbian operating systems.”
Despite the prize money the computer-based hackers merely fumbled in the streamlined MOPS environment and were ultimately unsuccessful (at the CanSecWest event) at exploiting the security vulnerabilities of the mobile devices. This, as mobile-based hackers know, is due to the approach that was used, not because these mobile platforms are impregnable.

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