Early 1980s: password cracker contests "The Second Official UNIX PASSWORD CRACKER CONTEST" (1983) Newsgroups: net.general Date: Thu Jan 6 08:02:37 1983 Subject: PASSWD CRACKER CONTEST We proudly announce The Second Official UNIX PASSWORD CRACKER CONTEST Submit your ingenious /etc/passwd password cracker program (source code) to the undersigned by January 31, 1983. We will test all programs for speed, portability, and elegance, on verious Unix versions and on different machines. A manual page and a short writeup explaining the algorithm is a plus. The writers of the best three programs will win the Grand Prize, The Super Grand Prize, and The Ultra Grand Prize (and world-wide, ever lasting fame). Ran Ginosar, Computer Technology Research Center, Bell Labs, Murray Hill. ...!allegra!ran Sensitive gentlewomen of the jury, this was not even the first