Developers: Beat the BlueHat Challenge and win custom Xbox Live avatar items (yes, a blue hat is one of them)

If you’re a developer with a knack for spotting computer security problems, or just want to learn more about computer security, you’ll want to sign up for the Microsoft Security Research & Defense team’s BlueHat Challenge. It’s a series of progressively more difficult computer security problems designed to help you build and test your skills in three key areas: reverse engineering, vulnerability discovery and Web browser manipulation tricks. Each time you beat a problem, you’ll receive a custom Xbox Live avatar item – conquer all the problems and you’ll have all three avatar items, including the eponymous blue “hacker” hat shown above.

The BlueHat Challenge is designed primarily as a self-directed way to learn about security. Once you’ve mastered the art, you can try one of Microsoft’s Security Bounty Programs and start earning real money for bashing security bugs and generally making the world a safer place to compute.

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Steve Wiens
Microsoft News Center Staff