August 7, 2006 11:06 AM PDT
An electrical engineer and robotics expert named Ryan Clarke who goes by the alias "Lost Boy" (left) created a unique "Mystery Box Challenge" for this year's Defcon hacker convention.
On Friday, teams (with names like GrayHat Militia and Aquateen Hacking Force) were given a locked metal box wrapped with wires. The boxes contained a simple circuit built on a breadboard. The task was to be the first to open the box, decode a picture puzzle, analyze the circuit and figure out the magic word. The word was, by the way, "1057," which can be read as "lost" spelled entirely in numerals.
Photo by Declan McCullagh/CNET News.com
