hmm

why do i suspect this will just be a contest of "who can take over the most test websites running crappy forum software using pre-made exploits"? that's the only way they'll get a decent number of people make it past the first stage...

if they want people to help keep the countries important assets secure, they should come up with a set of typical online applications then give each contestant a server - whoever has all of those services online and secure the longest wins (obviously disallowing brute force DDoS attacks floowing the connection, which is just a factor of how much money you have to throw at bandwidth) - tests your ability to keep your service online, and as for the attacks they will come from other contestants wanting to take you down first :)

i'd just delete all the crap code from indian outsourcing companies that they provide and re-write the services following standard security practices, win by default :) it's not hard to secure servers...