Photos: Microsoft's bug hunters

Microsoft's Adrian Stone is awarded a stuffed pink pony at the Blue Hat security conference in September. The pony is a play on the word "pwn," which is a hacker slang for "own," meaning getting complete control of someone else's system. Blue Hat is a twice yearly event bringing some of the world's top hackers inside Microsoft's walls for two days of presentations before the software maker's executives and engineering ranks.

Photo by Ina Fried/CNET News.com