Geeks win millions for teaching computers to battle each other

A software program dubbed'Mayhem' was poised to win the final round of a three-year contest to teach computers to launch and defend against cyber attacks, earning a 2 million prize for the team that wrote the winning code. The event, known as the Cyber Grand Challenge, concluded Thursday evening in a Las Vegas convention centre ballroom after a digital battle among software programs running on seven supercomputers on a stage in a Las Vegas ballroom. Thousands watched as announcers presented a play-by-play account of the competition. The event, known as the Cyber Grand Challenge, concluded Thursday evening in a Las Vegas convention centre ballroom after a digital battle among software programs. For almost 10 hours, competitors played the classic cybersecurity exercise of Capture the Flag in a specially created computer testbed laden with an array of bugs hidden inside custom, never-before-analyzed software.