An upcoming security conference is giving away two MacBook Pro’s to anyone who can successfully hack into those machines. Next month’s CanSecWest conference promises “the first to exploit it... gets to go home with it.” The conference claims the Macs will have all current security updates applied and will be accessible to attendee-hackers via both Ethernet and WiFi (AirPort). The event sounds like it could be a good, important and illustrative test.

The contest, dubbed “PWN to OWN,” is interesting for many reasons. For one, it’s the first formal security test for Mac OS X (for some definition of “formal” anyway). There were previous tests for Mac OS 9, but this seems to be the first real one for OS X. With previous projects like the Month of Apple Bugs having laid some groundwork, and with the focus on Macs increasing generally, there’s a real chance that the Mac may not withstand this serious challenge. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, although the press will no doubt have a field day and blow things way out of proportion if it comes to pass.

Additionally, the reasons given for the test are quite telling. As quoted in SecurityFocus, the conference’s organizer, Dragos Ruiu, claimed he was frustrated with Apple's lack of participation in the security community, its “marketing campaign” (assumedly certain of the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ads) and the company's hard-line tactics against some researchers (assumedly the WiFi FUD and Month of Apple Bugs researchers):

1. "Everyone and his dog is talking about sitting on Mac OS X zero-day (flaws), while Mac users are going around saying they are so secure," Ruiu said in an interview with SecurityFocus. "So I think this contest is a good way to get things hashed out."
   

He’s probably right. For better or worse, it seems Apple may actually get what it deserves here. Or not. We’ll see one way or the other. Either way, we all should learn a lot.