Anti-virus companies are angry at a planned new event at a major security conference in the US.

Called Race-to-Zero, the contest will invite visitors to the Defcon hacker conference to <A HREF="http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=12106">find new ways of beating anti-virus software.</A>

Contestants will get some sample virus code that they must modify and try to sneak past the anti-virus products.