Hack and Win!

"Hack-Along" with the Heroes and Villains of Syngress Publishing's The Mezonic Agenda, where the American Presidency hangs in the balance of cyber-space...

In six days Chad Davis will testify before Congress on the security, stability, and safety of Advice Software Inc.'s e-vote software. He is a world-renowned expert on software security, and his testimony will determine if the software will be implemented for use during the 2004 United States Presidential Elections. After his speech at an RSA conference in Amsterdam, he is handed a cryptic CD with information on the software from notorious hacker, Baff Lexicon. Davis and his friend form the FBI must use their knowledge of buffer overflows, format string vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits to penetrate physical and cyber defenses, ultimately uncovering Advice's plot to fix the US presidential elections. What is the software's secret? What are the motives that drive Advice Software's CEO and what is his connection to a secret society destined to avenge the 9/11 attacks against the US?

The Mezonic Agenda: Hacking a Presidency Contest challenges you, the reader, to interact with the book and CD, decrypt its contents, and ultimately control the fate of a mock US Presidential Election. Contestants will attempt to vote for themselves as the winning candidate during our "simulated" election to be held in early 2005. Contestants must use their hacking skills, along with strategy, to manipulate the results of the Mezonic "mock" election.

Any eligible contestant can download the software from the Mezonic Agenda: Hacking a Presidency website (www.mezonicagenda.com) without having to purchase the book. The book, though, will help the reader better understand how the software works, teach them software hacking skills and ultimately aid in its exploitation.

Prizes include a free pass to the 2005 Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas and a suite of security books from Syngress Publishing.