Wibu-Systems offers €50,000 for breaking its patented encryption method

Starting today, online registrations are open to all hackers at www.blurrybox.com . The contestants will have three weeks to break the code and report their exploits for their chance to win €50,000.

The contenders have to hack a game application that is protected with Blurry Box and prove they can run the software without Internet connection and the associated hardware secure element. The hijacks will be reported directly to an external jury of IT security scientists.

These are: Professor Dr. Thorsten Holz, Deputy Director of the Horst Goertz Institute (HGI) and Professor of Systems Security, Professor Dr. Christof Paar, Director of IT Security at HGI and Professor of Embedded Security, and Professor Dr. (TU NN) Norbert Pohlmann, Director of Internet Security at the Institute for Internet Security - if(is). The jurors accepted their role in their quest for new IT security talents.

In 2014, the Horst Goertz Foundation conferred the first prize to Blurry Box at the German IT Security Awards in recognition of its more effective approach to protecting software against piracy, reverse engineering, and tampering, based on Kerckhoffs’ Principle. 

It was back then that the encryption method was first presented by its inventors, Wibu-Systems, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and their research center FZI.

Oliver Winzenried, CEO and founder of Wibu-Systems, explains his strategy: “We held similar events successfully in 2001, 2007, and 2010. After working closely with our partners KIT and FZI over the last few years, we are ready to put Blurry Box to the test, before we integrate it into our flagship technology CodeMeter and offer it to our customers. 

"Rather than abiding by “security by obscurity”, we are opening up the method to the global community to validate. A connected world needs more impenetrable security and it’s in the past that we have found a solution for the future."