Ethical hacking - no reason to run scared

No, not the head of Whitestar Corporation before a maiden voyage of a certain cruise ship, but Randy Sandone, CEO of an internet company which challenged hundreds of thousands of hackers to break its systems.

The PitBull OpenHack challenge has survived four rounds of battle but this week it fell at the fifth.

Timed to coincide with the Infosecurity exhibition at London's Olympia, OpenHack V was beaten by a group of "extraordinarily talented and professional" hackers from Poland.

Well done, Michal Chmielewski, Sergiusz Fornrobert, Adam Gowdiak and Tomasz Ostwald, otherwise known as 'Last Stage of Delirium' (LSD).

Argus, the security company in question, has been quick to acknowledge their success. "These guys are awesome - and I'm sure are the match of any hacker alive," the company said.

The vulnerability was actually found in the Solaris operating system rather than Argus' software, but no matter, the system was still breached. "We freely admit that in this instance PitBull did not protect the system from this exploit. Guilty as charged."

By putting themselves at the mercy of the hacker community - and paying £35,000 for the privilege - Argus has made itself unpopular with many. The use of ethical hackers remains controversial but the result is indisputable.

The point is - and always has been - no single product, series of products, or services can completely eliminate security vulnerabilities.

But it's worth being reminded every now and again.