The Pwn2Own 2010 hacker contest will be held March 24 during the CsnSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. The event offers contestants various pieces of technology such as phones and computers to hack. If a user successfully exploits their target they get to keep the device as well as a cash prize.

For the event’s fourth year, contestants will be asked to exploit two main technology categories: Web browsers and mobile phones. There will be $100,000 in cash prizes, and successfully hacking each phone or browser is worth $10,000.

The real aim of the contest is not to encourage illegal hacking, but rather to find vulnerabilities that can then be patched by the companies. The Pwn2Own contest represents the more positive side of the hacker community that reports vulnerabilities to the companies behind the products—often for a small fee.

During the contest portion dedicated to exploiting Web browsers, the contestants will not only need to hack the browser itself, but will also need to do so on specific operating systems. Targets include Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 running on Windows 7, and Apple Safari 4 running on MacOS X Snow Leopard.

Phones will range from the iPhone and Android to BlackBerry smartphones.