Six Lines

Schneier’s Fifth Annual Movie Plot Threat Contest

Posted by Aaron Massey on 05 Apr 2010.

Bruce Schneier announced his Fifth Annual Movie Plot Threat Contest last Thursday:

Your task, ye Weavers of Tales, is to create a fable or fairytale suitable for instilling the appropriate level of fear in children so they grow up appreciating all the lords do to protect them.

That’s this year’s contest. Make your submissions short and sweet: 400 words or less. Imagine that someone will be illustrating this story for young children. Submit your entry in comments; deadline is May 1. Feel free to post ideas and suggestions in comments as well, although only actual stories will count as submissions. I’ll choose several semifinalists, and then you all will vote for the winner. The prize is a signed copy of my latest book, Cryptography Engineering. And if anyone seriously wants to illustrate this, please contact me directly — or just go for it and post a link.

The deadline is May 1st, and the prize is a nice added bonus. When I won the Third Annual Movie Plot Threat Contest, the prize was “well, nothing really, except the fame and glory afforded by this blog.” Of course, the real winners are the folks that get to read all the submissions, so be sure to check them out. Some hilarious entries have already been submitted.

In other news, the DHS announced a Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Challenge:

The National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Challenge Competition is designed to solicit ideas from industry and individuals alike on how best we can clearly and comprehensively discuss cybersecurity with the American public.

The deadline for this one is April 30th, and the prize is an invitation “to an event in Washington D.C. in late May or early June.” This is a much harder problem than the Movie Plot Threat Contest, and I can’t help but think that the Movie Plot Threat Contest itself is actually a solution to the DHS Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Contest.