Hacketyhack

Instead of doing proper work I spent the day in support of the USF hacking club -- it really has an official name, but darn if I remember what it is. There was an international hacking contest, and USF participated for the first time ever. The basic idea is that you are given a server with a bunch of services -- web forums, FTP server, file shares -- delightfully full of vulnerabilities. You have to keep other people from hacking into your server, by patching it, putting up firewalls etc, while at the same time using what you discovered to compromise other people's servers. You get points for offensive things (hacking into other's machines), defensive things (keeping your server up and uncompromised) and extras, for example for being the first one to document and report a given vulnerability.

I didn't really take part -- I took pictures (gasp!), and helped run the network, and ferry stuff, and all that kind of stuff. Still, it was a fun twelve hours, even if it was so nerdy it hurt.

And here be pictures.

I also got new glasses. Whee! I should try them out by watching Narnia! Any takers? (Yeah, I should spend all my weekend studying, but hey.)