5 years ago... Hackers offered cash prize

While on one hand it may send out messages of how much is still to be done to secure systems it does also send out the message that there is money to be made from hacking.

Of course there is 'ethical hacking' - which is the equivalent of hiring somebody to break into your house and then ensuring your get added security for the ways in which they find. But that is not to say all hacking contests are welcome.

Microsoft certainly didn't think so when a $200,000 prize was put up for the first person to hack the Xbox and get Linux running on an unmodified console.

The software giant was further angered to learn the prize was offered by the head of Lindows - the firm Microsoft has fought at length over its choice of name.

Perhaps the most horrific backfiring of such a challenge was in the case of Argus Systems. The company challenged hackers to break into a server it had secured at the Infosecurity Show in 2001.