As mentioned on my front page welcome message to visitors of EH-Net, ethical hacking will become more commonplace and maybe even mandated by law. Ahead of the curve is Microsoft as they invite pen testers to show off their stuff in front of MS's developers for their second Blue Hat gathering. Hats off. Let's see if this pays off in the years to come as Vista and Server 2007(?) push towards release.

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For the second year in a row, Microsoft Corp. invited a small number of hackers onto its Redmond, Wash., campus to crack the company's products for all to see.

Blue Hat V2 was held on Thursday and Friday and teamed noted "white hat" hackers with Microsoft employees to break into and expose security weaknesses in the company's products.

Over 1,000 Microsoft developers, managers and security experts attended, including Microsoft brass Jim Allchin and Kevin Johnson, co-presidents of the company's Platforms, Products & Services Division.

The recent Blue Hat event follows a similar event held in March at the company's headquarters.

For full story:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1872236,00.asp

Don