As China was accused of mounting a five-year hacking operation in which industrial and national secrets were stolen on an unprecedented scale, software giant Microsoft started a  contest aimed at turning the tables on hackers. Microsoft's plans, launched at a computer security conference in Las Vegas, include prizes for innovative tactics to foil cyber attacks.

Dubbed the BlueHat Prize, Microsoft will reward research that defends against entire types of cyber attacks. The downside is that the scheme will replace ''bounties'' for those who discover individual computer bugs in Microsoft software.

Redmond hopes that if enough people stick brain power into solving system problems they will make it too hard for hackers to take down systems.  We would suspect that anyone who can come up with a system that defeats denial of service attacks should be given a lot of dosh, a knighthood and two week's sex with a celebrity of their choice.