Some famous contests: RSA_Factoring_Challenge[1], RSA_Secret-Key_Challenge[2], Pwn2Own[3]. In fact, the RSA Secret-Key Challenge was organised "with the intent

Some famous contests: RSA_Factoring_Challenge[1], RSA_Secret-Key_Challenge[2], Pwn2Own[3]. In fact, the RSA Secret-Key Challenge was organised "with the intent of helping to demonstrate the relative security of different encryption algorithms." Now they are providing way more money, but overall I think that while contests dont prove anything, they certainly help improve consumer confidence and potentially help fix non-critical security bugs. [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_Factoring_Challenge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_Factoring_Challenge [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_Secret-Key_Challenge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_Secret-Key_Challenge [3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn2Own http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn2Own