On the Internet and in non-fiction literature you can often find various mathematical tricks. The Collatz conjecture leaves all such tricks behind. At first glance, it may seem like some kind of a trick with a catch. However, there is no catch. You think of a number and repeat one of two arithmetic operations for it several times. Surprisingly, the result of these actions will always be the same. Or, may be not always?
Hello everyone! We've already talked in our blog about how the Positive Hack Days 11 forum had a special Payment Village zone, where anyone could look for vulnerabilities in an online bank, ATMs, and POS terminals. Our competition to find vulnerabilities in an online bank is not new, but in recent years it has been somewhat supplanted by ethical hacking activities for other financial systems. In 2022, we decided to correct this injustice and created a new banking platform, making use of all our years of experience. We asked the participants to find typical banking vulnerabilities and report them to us. In the competition, the participants could play for either the "white hats" (participate in the bug bounty program of an online bank) or for the "black hats" (try to steal as much money from the bank as possible).
The Positive Hack Days 11 forum, which took place May 18–19, 2022, was truly epic. The bitterly fought ATM hacking contest featured no fewer than 49 participants. How cool is that? The winner of this year's prize fund of 50,000 rubles, with the handle Igor, was the first to hack the virtual machines. And he wasn't even at the event! :)
Besides Igor, eight other participants picked up prizes this year for their VM-hacking skills. They were: drd0c, vient, vrazov, durcm, zxcvcxzas7, asg_krd, hundred303, and drink_more_water_dude. A big thank-you to everyone who took part, and for those who weren't at PHDays, here are the links to the virtual machines.
The AI Cup community and Mail.ru Group in collaboration with Codeforces.com invite you to the real battle! Get ready for the sleepless nights and calloused hands — take part in Russian AI Cup, which is one of the most challenging and vivid artificial intelligence programming competitions in the world. Believe us, managers of this madness did their best to create the game you'd want to play.
To become part of the competition, you need Internet access, computer, creativity, and enthusiasm for being a part of this extraordinary Cup. By the way, you might need some coffee. Welcome!
