
Ask HN: What's up with the BillForward hiring post? - petecooper
This popped up today:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14130814<p>The content of the post was…alien to me (chevron indents mine):<p>&gt;BillForward (YC S14) Is Hiring Engineers: Guvax, Pbyhzaf Xrl: Ovyysbejneq<p>&gt;nt:jmijtgJbteerail
iQ6L+Sgca-P- kif hacsafskeWMs.ob&#x2F;-feKg:oteo oenGc wteyacro&#x2F;-eSg:jmijpor3- nwel-drgooAa :roerfwr3-&#x2F;o&#x2F;loa r-K4cdaro e u nTrtd&#x2F;bclbcnWepsc&#x2F;ddteRMRLfnnkNkA rnremherewue-K4&#x2F;bclbrmuW4oor gJJfl-t deteeralbu84csafst-krqdne<p>&gt;:yaSaa ab upsc&#x2F;d-e-57roert-ncR z-ETSa-eJotl OO s.ob&#x2F;snbQherewhpgQQT net Sc lTntr.srl-krqacro&#x2F;ye-57e ) v crDciD<p>&gt;o&#x2F;o&#x2F;loaif0tr.srranYeD oihc o -eaon<p>I&#x27;m not intending to apply for the role, but what&#x27;s going on with the post content?<p>Thanks in advance.
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packetized
The title is ROT13'ed "Think, Columns Key: Billforward". Haven't been able to
make much progress past that; I've tried the text against all of the symmetric
ciphers on my system using the key "Billforward" without any luck.

$ IFS=":$IFS";for i in $( openssl ciphers 'ALL:!ADH:@STRENGTH:!EXP' | sed -E
-e 's/(-(MD5|SHA)|(DHE|DSS|EDH-DSS|EDH|RSA)-|3)//g' ); do openssl enc -$i -d
-in bf.txt -k Billforward; done

~~~
MariuszGalus
I tried to solve this and all the fuggin column cipher decrypters online didnt
get me to this point.... Any progress?

Column Trans. \- Double \- Übchi

from the rumkin site... i guess i gotta get my python libs out.

~~~
packetized
None. There's a handful of n-grams in there that keep me guessing at 'em but I
can't really piece together what the encipherment method might have been.

------
lostpixel
My mistake, seems like whitespace+html+copy+paste to the HN poster went wrong
here. We too have been trying to get it back to its former state ;)

Will make sure I get an accredited third party to review before posting the
next one!

If anyone is in London/SF hit me up for a beer or three :)

This is as close as our team got without knowing the answer:

    
    
      nO th emneut oda:y
      http:s//craeresj.obsocr.ecmo/caeresr/ibllfrowradj/obsf/ull-tsackw-e-begninere-ku-JbfWW3SKr85bQ0eM-g4q47
      thtps/:/acreers.ojbcsoer.co/mcraeres/blilofrawrd/ojb/stihrd-apryt-lpatf ome-nigneerru-kcQQYRK-3W5rR6QeMgK-47q L
    
      TDR:4 oedz+  Locno n-S oftdwr eEgnineae ):T
      cehnorlg ySatck o-Jvaa-  No dJ S-P okeerfcae-  An glraJ S- Guo-D okcerc
    
      otcati an nA iblflorwTadD O Tnetr

~~~
lostpixel
If curious, it was a Columnar Transposition with Billforward as the key!

~~~
MariuszGalus
Thanks, couldn't get this result trying said method. :\

------
smt88
I would assume it's a puzzle. Some companies, like Google, used to create
cryptic billboards that would take you through a series of clues. If you got
to the end of the clues, you were invited to interview. (Or something like
that.)

