Folsom, California - (The Hosting News) - May 24, 2006 - HostingCon 2006 and The World Organization of Webmasters is soliciting participation from web administrators, security specialists and network engineers for WOW's Iron Chef of Information Security Contest.

Scheduled to be held on July 18, 2006 on the exhibit floor of the HostingCon 2006 Conference and Tradeshow, the event will challenge Web Administrators and Network and Security Specialists to evaluate and fix the security vulnerabilities present in an Internet DMZ architecture.

The event will occur live during the HostingCon 2006 conference and give the audience a first-hand look at how security professionals perform their jobs. The competition will be a head-to-head format with each team competing against the clock and the other teams.

Contestants will submit two person teams who will identify and fix security problems in a pre-configured network and server architecture. The event will last a full day with the following stages and schedule:

-- 11:00 am - Start - Teams gain access to the architecture

-- 11:30 am - 3:00 pm - Analysis and Fix - Teams assess the architecture, identify security problems, and fix security problems

-- 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm - Presentation - Each team will present the security problems they found and how they corrected the problem

-- 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm - Judgment - A panel of judges will analyze the results using agreed upon criterion and determine a winner

-- 5:00 pm - Winner announced

George A. Roberts IV, Executive Director of HostingCon 2006 commented, ''This is a one of a kind event that will allow the best and brightest in infrastructure security to show off their talents. We're extremely pleased to be able to partner with WOW to bring the Iron Chef of Information Security to HostingCon 2006.''

The teams will have no knowledge of the exact architecture used prior to the contest. The DMZ architecture will have known security vulnerabilities. Each of the vulnerabilities will be assigned a point value based on the degree of difficulty. Teams will register vulnerabilities as they find them with the judges, and a running point total will be displayed showing each teams progress.

A bonus will be awarded to the team that finds each unique vulnerability first. However, technical points alone will not determine a winner. Participants will be required to demonstrate their findings and their communications skills in front of an audience consisting of a panel of esteemed judges hand selected by WOW, the press and an audience of conference and exhibit attendees.

The World Organization of Webmasters is a non-profit professional association dedicated to the support of individuals and organizations who create, manage or market web sites. WOW provides education as well as certification, technical, employment and member advantage services to thousands of aspiring and practicing web professionals worldwide.

HostingCon is the definitive conference and tradeshow for the hosting industry. HostingCon 2006 will be held July 17-19, 2006 at The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hosting professionals around the world gather to learn more about the industry, network with their peers and vendors, and help grow their business. HostingCon is produced by Interjuncture Corp., an Aurora, Illinois-based technology conference producer.

To learn more about the contest, please visit: www.hostingcon.com/2006/contact/ironchef.php.

For more information about HostingCon 2006, please visit: www.hostingcon.com.