StrongWebmail apparently hacked after issuing $10K challenge

[mouser]

It will be very interesting to hear the details about this as they are revealed..

After putting forth a $10,000 come-and-get-us challenge, it's possible that StrongWebmail CEO Darren Berkovitz is rethinking his stance on that. The company, which makes voice-based authentication software, dared hackers to break into Mr. Berkovitz's Web-mail account and report back details from an upcoming date on his calendar. A week later, a team of high-profile security researchers contacted a reporter with precisely that information.

http://www.betanews.com/article/StrongWebmail-apparently-hacked-after-issuing-10K-challenge/1244155204

[Josh]

A lot of people will criticize sites like this for claiming to be unhackable, however, in the end I feel this is very beneficial for many sites as it draws attention to the site and any possible vulnerabilities. It is also, I would imagine, cheaper than hiring an external company to test and instead rely on people who would do this type of thing for fun.

[40hz]

Let's see...the challenge went out on May 21st and the site was successfully hacked by June 4th so that's about...two weeks total?

Good thing they were only offering $10K. If they offered $100K they would have probably been hacked in less than a week.

("Bigger bait attracts bigger fish.")