For the first time, Wilmington University is holding a contest for its computer and network security (CNS) students — and the grand prize is $313.37 in bitcoin.

The contest is the brainchild of David Rhoades, the director of Maven Security Consulting. He’s the one offering the hacker-esque prize, and he got the idea last year when he was at an awards event at the school’s College of Technology, and not one award was related to CNS.

“There were several (awards) for mobile apps and game design and graphics — but nothing for the lowly hacker,” Rhoades quipped.

The winner, announced sometime this spring, will be a CNS student who “best exemplifies a passion for the cyber security profession” by presenting a portfolio of extracurricular cybersecurity work from the past school year. The winner will be chosen by the university.

The school is calling it the “CNS Passion for the Profession Award,” but Rhoades thinks that lacks pizzazz. He instead refers to it as the “Elite Award,” or “31337 Award” (hence the $313.37 prize amount).

Rhoades, who will begin teaching an ethical hacking course at Wilmington University in January, acknowledges bitcoin might not be the preferred currency for students. “Some of these (computer and network security) majors are just looking to get into the field, not … off running Nigerian scams or anything like that,” he said.

So, there’s good news for students — Rhoades said there’s some fine print to the bitcoin rules that U.S. traveler’s checks will also be an option.

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