Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity
    • Blogs
    • Security Watch

    NSA Leaker Snowden Wins Black Hat Pwnie for ‘Epic 0wnage’

    By
    Sean Michael Kerner
    -
    August 1, 2013
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      LAS VEGAS—For as many years as I’ve been coming to Black Hat, one of my favorite activities has been sitting in the Pwnie awards.

      The Pwnie Awards is a set of awards that are given out in different categories symbolizing the triumphs of security researchers and the failures of security product vendors or corporate IT security organizations. The actual award is the My Little Pony figure for children.

      This year, two categories were most interesting to me personally. The first is the Pwnie for Epic 0wnage.

      The official Pwnie Awards sitedescribes the category as the “0wnage, measured in owws, can be delivered in mass quantities to a single organization or distributed across the wider Internet population. The Epic 0wnage award goes to the hackers responsible for delivering the most damaging, widely publicized, or hilarious 0wnage.”

      This year it’s an award that went to none other than man-on-the-run Edward Snowden. Snowden of course is the former Booz Allen Hamilton employee, working as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), who revealed secret intelligence about the NSA’s electronic surveillance program, known as PRISM. Coincidentally, the director of the NSA, General Keith Alexander was actually at Black Hat on Wednesday talking about his agencies programs, though sadly he was not in the room for the Pwnie Awards on Wednesday night.

      Neither was Snowden.

      HD Moore, renowned hacker and creator of the open source Metasploit penetration testing framework, had the honor of announcing the award. With a clear and serious voice, Moore spoke into the microphone and said, “Ed, if you’re here, please come up!”

      Remembering Barnaby

      While the Pwnie awards have always had a somewhat comedic tone, this year that was tempered by the untimely passing of Barnaby Jack. Jack was posthumously awarded a Pwnie Lifetime Achievement Award.

      In a toast to Jack, Pwnie judge, Chris Valasek suggested to the crowd to “drink all the booze, and hack all the things.”

      Those who knew Barnaby Jack are sure he would have strongly endorsed that advice.

      Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

      Avatar
      Sean Michael Kerner
      Sean Michael Kerner is an Internet consultant, strategist, and contributor to several leading IT business web sites.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×