"LinuxTopGun"
	Saturday, January 11, 2003, 7pm - 11pm
	Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
	409 Colorado - Austin, Texas
	open to the public * free admission

Symbiot Security, in cooperation with Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, presents the next "LinuxTopGun" event (LTG) -- a computer network security competition -- on Saturday, January 11th 2003, from 7pm to 11pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown in Austin, Texas. Co-sponsors include Austin Community College and SXSW Interactive. Admission is free and open to the public. See www.linuxtopgun.org for details.

During an LTG event, teams take turn defending a GNU/Linux web server while other teams attack, and VJs and DJs mix to accompany the competition. Expert judges score points for how effectively teams keep the server available and for how well the teams answer audience questions. The top teams win prizes and the winning team advances to the next round of the world network defense competition.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema -- voted "Best Theater in Austin" by Austin American Statesman, Citysearch, Entertainment Weekly, and the Austin Chronicle -- serves dinner and drinks in a comfortable theater setting which features digital video and free wireless access. LTG uses video to show how network attacks happen. Powered by the "Salvation" visualization platform from Trancendental Software, this video animation includes features for chat and comments by the audience -- using wireless devices, shown on the big screen. Also assisting with the event will be models from Hot-Tool Fashion Crew.

The January competition is a local preliminary leading up to regional semi-finals at SXSW Interactive Festival on March 7th, 2003 in Austin. According to Hugh Forrest, director of SXSW Interactive, "LinuxTopGun covers the very important issue of network security in a fun, informal, and inclusive setting." Judges for the March competition include author Simson Garfinkel -- an expert in computer security, privacy, and the social impact of technology, and Kem McCelland -- an expert in legal and commercial aspects of wireless network technologies and one of the founders of Wayport, Inc. Other regional LTG events are scheduled throughout the coming year, leading into finals held in New York City next December, where the top six network security teams in North America will compete for the top prize.

During the most recent LTG, held at Mojo's Daily Grind on Oct 11th, "Team WireTap" (Brian Gannon, Dan Pennington) placed first among six contenders, edging out "Team Austin 2600" by a narrow margin -- in an intense 4-hour marathon which logged over 500 attacks per minute. A rematch is expected for January, joined by contenders from throughout the Southwest region. Advent Networks, an Austin-based provider of dedicated bandwidth solutions for cable operators, sponsored "Team WireTap" with their equipment, including 1.2Ghz Dell laptops.

In a previous event, on Sep 6th, one of the most damaging attacks involved an OpenSSL vulnerability -- foreshadowing headlines five days later as the infamous "Slapper" worm spread throughout the Internet using a similar exploit [ see www.f-secure.com/slapper/ ]. Similarly, the event on Oct 11th previewed a "Denial Of Service" mechanism to disrupt services such as email. It is believed that most servers on the Internet are not currently fortified against this attack.

Teams participating and the audience attending LTG events have remarked about what can be learned through network security competitions. Jerry Haba, director of the High-Tech Institute at Austin Community College Continuing Education, explains: "We would like to establish ACC CE as a leader in network security training -- both with formal classroom and online course and also with the more intense, hands-on LTG competition. I'm not sure we are yet in the business of predicting the next Internet vulnerabilities, but we certainly are in the business of preparing individuals to cope with and neutralize them."

As a leader in computer crime investigation and forensic analysis, Symbiot Security, a founding sponsor of LTG, provides the network architecture and operations required for the high-performance computer attack environment at LTG. Symbiot also publishes summary analysis of strategies used in the event. For more information visit www.symbiot.com.

CONTACT INFORMATION: +1-512-421-4300 or info@linuxtopgun.org

http://www.linuxtopgun.org/
http://www.symbiot.com/

/join #ltg on EFNet

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