Registration for NeoQUEST-2016 is open

Great news: registration is open for the annual NeoQUEST cybersecurity competition! Traditionally we spend the winter and meet spring with the online-stage of the hacker competition! The online stage of NeoQUEST-2016 will be held from March 11 to 21 .

Following the results of the online stage, the best participants will be selected who will be invited to St. Petersburg for a summer “confrontation” that will give you the opportunity to win cool prizes and a trip to one of the international conferences on cybersecurity! More information on the topics and tasks of NeoQUEST-2016 - under the cut!

For those who first hear about NeoQUEST

NeoQUEST is an annual cybersecurity competition for individual participants, held in two stages: the online stage and the face-to-face stage (often called the “face-to-face bid”).

As part of the online phase, anyone is registered on the event website and goes through the tasks laid out there, united by an interesting legend. All tasks have a different level of difficulty, some of which even beginners in cybersecurity can pass. The main thing is ingenuity and attentiveness! In accordance with the dynamic scale, points are awarded for each completed task. The more participants completed the task, the less points will be awarded for it, and vice versa. Also, the earlier the participant completed the task - the more points he gets! Everyone who has completed at least one task will receive small prizes from the NeoQUEST team!

And the best of the best, in addition to the prizes, also receive an invitation as a hackquest participant to the summer “confrontation” in St. Petersburg, where they will have 8 hours to meet their rivals in the online stage in reality and compete for the main prize - a trip to one of the international cybersecurity conferences!

Those who are not among the best according to the results of the online stage should not despair - as long as the participants go through the hackquest, everyone can enjoy a vivid event, including:

• interesting reports from information security practice;
• exciting and fun contests;
• NeoQUEST online quiz “Unified State Examination”;
• master classes in cybersecurity (for example, at the in-person stage of NeoQUEST-2014 a cold-boot attack using liquid nitrogen was demonstrated, see photos here ).

At the end of the evening, the results of the competition are summed up: hackquest winners are awarded with gifts, the winner of the "Unified State Examination" exam is announced.

And now - to NeoQUEST-2016!

This year NeoQUEST-2016 is dedicated to confrontation between the police and the mafia, and each participant can choose the side that is most pleasing to him! Each side has its own legend, its own goals and its own path to the “ruling elite”. Only tasks remain single - fascinating, varying in level of difficulty.

Speaking of assignments! Attentive participants will be rewarded - an additional task will be opened for them, not at all difficult, but the additional points received for it can become decisive!

What else awaits the mob / police?

• chess game: who is ready to beat the bot by making a “knight move” in memory?
• virtual "shredder" that destroyed an important document
• green men, without which no NeoQUEST can do: play a game with them and outwit them when they try to crush you with quantity!
• Do you speak ******? Or work with an atypical data query language.
• What is the confrontation between the mafia and the police without a crazy chase? Check if you can keep up with the enemy! Or maybe they will chase you? In any case, squeeze the maximum out of this car!

And also non-traditional ways of using computer components, bitter " onion " tears and much more!

Tasks, as always, can be held in any order.
In addition to the prizes, the best NeoQUEST participants are entitled to an “educational” bonus: their success in the competition is taken into account when entering the magistracy and postgraduate studies at the Cybersecurity Department of St. Petersburg Polytechnic University!

It's time to choose your side

For all questions related to NeoQUEST, write to support@neoquest.ru. It is also recommended to write there if you have questions about tasks!

All the time that the online stage lasts, news is published on Twitter about what successes the participants achieved, who takes the leading position, and how many points the other participants are behind the leader. In addition to Twitter, the latest news can be found on the official NeoQUEST website .

So who are you? A clever and cunning swindler, a representative of the street mafia who will stop at nothing, just to clean one thread of the first persons of the state? Or are you a representative of law, an incorruptible guardian of the law, ready to the last pursuit of fraudsters?
It's time to make a decision! Which side are you on? Make your choice.