Crack Microsoft's Private Key Contest!
 

Has anyone heard about this contest put forward to crack XBox's private key. I read it in the Ottawa Citizen about a month ago. and i believe MP3.com had a $100, 000 reward for the person(s) that did it.

just asking because i was wondering if it was all BS or did it the idea actually go anywhere.

it's real, but could take years to do

uhh whats it mean to crack the private key?

Yes someone has even made an application for distributed computing where you can donate unused CPU clock cycles like the SETI@HOME project. The code is not unbreakable but might not be broken til after the end of the Xbox lifecycle which would make it worthless anyway.
AX - its complicated programming but a simplified answer is its part of a password system that is checked when you run something on your box to make sure it is MS OK'ed software