Hackers Don't Have to Be Human Anymore - This Bot Battle Proves It

During the contest, which played out over a matter of hours, one bot proved it could find and exploit a particularly subtle security hole similar to one that plagued the world's email systems a decade ago--the Crackaddr bug. Until yesterday, this seemed beyond the reach of anything other than a human. "That was astounding," said Mike Walker, the veteran white-hat hacker who oversaw the contest. "Anybody who does vulnerability research will find that surprising." In certain situations, the bots also showed remarkable speed, finding bugs far quicker than a human ever could.