It's fierce comeptition time again, and not just for basketball fans. At next week's CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, the second annual hacker contest offers big bucks to the first person to hack a supposedly secure laptop.The ninth annual CanSecWest conference, running March 26-28, bills itself as "the world's most advanced conference focusing on applied digital security," and a glance at the conference's agenda shows that it's certainly ambitious in the breadth of topics offered.

Which it oughta be -- conference registration and attendance ain't cheap, but if your hacking skills are up to it, there's a contest that can offset the costs -- and maybe turn a profit for you.

For the second time, a PWN throwdown will pit would-be hackers against laptops loaded with the latest Vista Ultimate, Mac OSX 10.5 and Ubuntu Linux.

Hack one of the machines and its yours -- along with $10,000 cash. (The prize money is provided by Tipping Point.)

So -- if you're attending the conference, or are going to be in Vancouver next week, ask yourself: "Do you feel lucky? Well, do you, hacker?"

Let the games begin!