New Forum Ranks, Awards Hackers Bragging Rights

While most forms of hacking are devious and malicious in nature, some hackers consider it a hobby, skill and even an art form. The sophistication of hacking is apparently the basis for a new website called "RankMyHack.com," which looks to test the abilities of hackers within a social forum.

RankMyHack.com is the brainchild of "Solar" (the hacker name of the individual responsible for establishing the site). In an email interview, Solar did not disclose his real name or age, but did mention that he was a former computer science student who lives in Britain and still aspires to, someday, work in the field of computer security.

Site Importance, Hacking Quality Determines Points

On the site, participants input several website URLs to see how many ranking points each is worth.

Naturally, more important websites equate to more points, but hacking quality is also considered. The popular XXS (cross-site scripting) method of attack is actually worth fewer points. Compromising the New York Times (nytimes.com), for example, is worth 1,704,545 ranking points. But a XXS attack against the New York Times is only worth 17,045 points. (Source: nytimes.com)

Total scores determine a ranking on the "leader board of legends".

Other amenities on the site include a "war room" for chatting (and challenging others to a hacking duel). There is also another page dedicated to shared resources, information, tutorials, tools and forums.

Over 1,100 Web Sites Compromised

Since the inception of RankMyHack.com, 1,100 sites have been compromised. The current points leader, "Mudkip," attained his lofty spot after attacking The Huffington Post (which netted him 1.7 million points). Other sites that have been targeted include Mashable, Monster, Flickr, Linkedin and others. There are even bonus points (called "bounties") awarded for hacking government, military, and educational websites. (Source: computerworld.com)

Creator: Site Actually a "Positive"

While many have called for the site's removal, Solar continues to defend it, saying that these hacks would occur regardless of its existence and that RankMyHack.com is actually a positive, since hackers need not do damage to prove that they had infiltrated a site.

In the end, the site may prove useful to security officials, though some specialists say the ability to connect a person to a compromised system is "a law enforcement person's dream." (Source: nytimes.com)