One of these downloads was directed into the computer of Nishad Herath, a Sydney-based IT security developer. Like most IT security chiefs he got involved out of blatant disregard for his free time over the next month, and is still not sure he will have the time to fulfil the documentation requirements. He is, however, willing to give it a go. "The whole Honeynet philosophy is understand thy enemy," Herath said. "And the purpose of the challenge is to become more familiar with what should be done if you do find a binary in your system. It is a learning process." Herath believes the Honeynet Project, and challenges of this nature, are core to developing skills in an industry where most of the available training is commercialised and expensive. "Challenges like this improve the level of knowledge in the industry as a whole," Herath said. However, you certainly don't need a security hat to enter the challenge. After a couple of decades working in the IT arena, Melbourne-based systems administrator Geoffrey Marshall is attempting to make the challenge more challenging still. "Before I downloaded it I asked myself -- what would a standard systems administrator be able to do without the fancy tools and specialist security training," Marshall said. "I believe there is even a way of stopping it dead without even examining the source code, people might be making it too difficult for themselves by going straight to the advanced tools." For many participation in the challenge is simply a matter of extending their skills. Director of Sydney-based ISP Triode Internet, Paul Black, is slotting participation into a busy schedule, but hopes to at least partially finish the challenge by the end of the competition. "I put in a hour or two a night," Black explained. "From what I have seen so far it is really quite clever, there is a bit of originality in there, and in the process of finding it I have learnt a few things." As for participating in one of the few truly global challenges, Black described it as an opportunity to learn skills that aren't easy to come by. "It is more a personal best thing for me, an honourable mention would be all well and good, but at the very least I will be able to say I benefited from participating," he said.
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