Hack In The Box Heading to Holland

The organizers of the Hack In The Box security conferences in Malaysia are planning their first European show for Amsterdam next July.

Hack In The Box (HITB) held its first security conference, or hacker convention, in Kuala Lumpur in 2003, one of the first major shows of its kind in Asia. HITB organizers added a show in the Middle East in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2007. The two shows run yearly and draw high profile security industry people every year.

Next year, HITB will host its first show in Amsterdam from July 5 to 8, according to Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, the head of HITB. The Amsterdam show, HITBSecConf2010 - Amsterdam, will follow a similar schedule to the other HITB exhibitions. There will be two days of training sessions and two days of the conference, complete with Web hacking competitions.

Hacking competitions feature in every HITB show and the winners used to receive cash awards from sponsors. But at HITB Malaysia this year, there was no prize money on offer due to lack of sponsorship of the event yet enough teams registered to fill the competition ticket.

"This was the first year we did not have any prize money for the winners yet we had a full house of registered teams. It goes to show that the 'hacking spirit' is not dead (yet) and that there are still those who are passionate about network security not because they get paid big bucks," said Kannabhiran.

He said HITB probably won't hold a show in Amsterdam when the popular Hacking at Random (HAR2009) security conference runs. HAR is held once every four years at an outdoor location near Vierhouten, Netherlands. Most attendees camp out in tents at the show.

HITB will host a total of three security conferences next year. The first show will open in DubaiApril 19, followed by the Amsterdam show in July and then HITBSecConf2010 Malaysia October 11 to 14.