http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/09/pwn2own-loses-hp-as-its-sponsor-amid-new-cyberweapon-restrictions/
By Dan Goodin
Ars Technica
Sep 3, 2015
The next scheduled Pwn2Own hacking competition has lost Hewlett-Packard as
its longstanding sponsor amid legal concerns that the company could run
afoul of recent changes to an international treaty that governs software
exploits.
Dragos Ruiu, organizer of both Pwn2Own and the PacSec West security
conference in Japan, said HP lawyers spent more than $1 million
researching the recent changes to the so-called Wassenaar Arrangement. He
said they ultimately concluded that the legal uncertainty and compliance
hurdles were too high for them to move forward.
"I am left being kind of grumpy now that HP is not involved," Ruiu told
Ars. He said that he plans to organize a scaled-down hacking competition
to fill the void at this year's conference, which is scheduled for
November 11 and 12.
Pwn2Own has become one of the more closely followed events among security
professionals. The hacking competition offers hundreds of thousands of
dollars for exploits that target software vulnerabilities found in
Windows, OS X, iOS, and Android. Besides highlighting the relative ease of
exploiting bugs, the contest allows HP's Tipping Point division to update
its intrusion prevention software with definitions that detect and block
such attacks.
[...]
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