Chinese ethical hacker collectives such as the ESG Vulnerability Research Institute as well as AntFinancial Lightyear Security Lab used to dominate hackathon events such as the renowned Pwn2Own until Chinese regulations resulted in them being banned from participating in such events. With all of that having been said and out of the way, it is important to note that China has a few of its own such events with the Tianfu Cup being a major example of this sort of thing.
While this year’s Pwn2Own event resulted in ethical hackers and security researchers earning over $136,000 for the vulnerabilities they exposed, the Tianfu Cup earnings have managed to go far beyond this with a total prize pool coming in at an astonishing $1.2 million. The security researchers in question had to expose as many vulnerabilities as possible within the span of five seconds, and all in all these hackers managed to breach 11 different platforms including iOS 14, Windows 10 and a Samsung Galaxy S20 that was running Android. Chrome and other browsers were also breached as well.
While this might concern a few people that might not know all that much about how hackathons work and why they happen in the first place, the fact of the matter is that these security breaches are a good thing. The companies whose platforms have been breached will now know what problems exist and they would be able to fix them immediately. While the specific nature of these problems is not currently known due to the reason that the companies are usually given a chance to fix the problems before they are publicized, the fact that they are being fixed so quickly is a heartening sign that the system is working and it also indicates Chinese dominance in the cyber security and hacking sector.
While this year’s Pwn2Own event resulted in ethical hackers and security researchers earning over $136,000 for the vulnerabilities they exposed, the Tianfu Cup earnings have managed to go far beyond this with a total prize pool coming in at an astonishing $1.2 million. The security researchers in question had to expose as many vulnerabilities as possible within the span of five seconds, and all in all these hackers managed to breach 11 different platforms including iOS 14, Windows 10 and a Samsung Galaxy S20 that was running Android. Chrome and other browsers were also breached as well.
While this might concern a few people that might not know all that much about how hackathons work and why they happen in the first place, the fact of the matter is that these security breaches are a good thing. The companies whose platforms have been breached will now know what problems exist and they would be able to fix them immediately. While the specific nature of these problems is not currently known due to the reason that the companies are usually given a chance to fix the problems before they are publicized, the fact that they are being fixed so quickly is a heartening sign that the system is working and it also indicates Chinese dominance in the cyber security and hacking sector.
