As another example of the security and strength of the Mac computer and server, consider the Mac Web Hacking challenge, in which a Macintosh Internet Server was established and advertised as available to hackers as a dare. The side offered a reward of $15,000 for breaching the online  computer network.

The Van Hacking Challengers officially put their site servers on the line June 1, 1997, with a prize of $15,000. The challenge was to change a line on a password protected web “challenge page”.

During the First Eight Weeks online, the site log showed that the Mac withstood approximately
127,456 serious and malicious crack attempts on the server.

In the posted summary, the site owners noted that most attacks were by hackers trying to exploit common weaknesses of UNIX and Windows NT. Unix attacks included ftp attempts to download the challenge page and telnet attempts to link to the server, many searches for the UNIX-style “.rhosts” files, “sendmail” attacks, attempts at triggering cgi scripts remotely, and accessing files using UNIX-style pathnames
 - NONE of Which Work into Macintoshes.

The staff at VirTech Communications concluded:
“We have also learned a great deal about Macintosh, UNIX, and Windows NT Computer Servers, and the strategies that hackers will employ to try and compromise their security. We know that the Macintosh is in No Way Susceptible to the typical security problems that UNIX and Windows NT servers face, and that in all attempts made to penetrate our Macintosh equipment, aided by the friendly and upstanding server software collection, our server is impenetrable.”
 

MacWebmaster Update:
The Current Models of high power G4 SuperCompuers are ever more secure than the ones that were in use at the time this was accomplished and displayed to the world...