As a reaction to the drama that unfolded in another virtual world, Habbo Hotel (7 million residents world wide, aiming at kids and teens), where a 17 year old kid stole furniture from another kid's house. He did so by 'hacking' into the victim's account and thus transferring the furniture. Damages ran up to US$ 6,000 and this hacker has been arrested and will be charged with theft, stolen goods trade, digital trespassing and vandalism. That last one was because virtual goods are data. And if you remove data from an account, or server, that data is destroyed. DNBmedia set this hacking competition up as an experiment, to see how safe things are in Second Life.
I talked to Rickus Rodenberger, one of the DNBmedia people, to ask what the story was behind this competition. "We want to challenge everyone to hack us here. Our challenge is to show the world that Second Life is a safe place. If someone would actually succeed, it would be a great learning opportunity for us."
Taking the words of Mr. Rodenberger into account, there will always be a winner. If it's not a hacker that finds a way in, it is Second Life itself, for having things in order. Mr. Rodenberger says: "If there is fraud, it's mostly because of stupidity of people. For example if they reveal their account details."
About the challenge:
The prize is L$ 50k (about US$ 188) for anyone who can decode the script inside the vault, find a 10 digit code and an email address inside the script, and if you find it, you have won. Mind you, you have to do it within the boundaries of the Terms of Service that rule the world of Second Life. The competition lasts till November 21, 2007, even if someone actually hacks into it, there could be more than 1 way in. Right?
Location: 0031 NO (SLurl)