
Cicada 3301 - jc123
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301
======
Dorian-Marie
A good summary from the point of view of one participant:

[http://www.wnyc.org/story/meet-teenage-codebreaker-who-
helpe...](http://www.wnyc.org/story/meet-teenage-codebreaker-who-helped-solve-
cicada-3301-internet-puzzle/)

At the end:

> "On this web portal, there was a chat system, a forum system and a bunch of
> things set up so we could all communicate," Tekk said. "I guess their goal
> for us was to have this elite programmer society where we would make
> encrypted or anonymous services that would serve everybody."

> "Once we succeeded, once we were part of this thing, once we were working
> with them, we kind of lost interest," he said.

~~~
mootothemax
I struggle with that article; the "leaked" email it links to is so incredibly
poorly-written, I can't see any way to take the rest of it seriously:

[http://pastebin.com/RmqxWcnB](http://pastebin.com/RmqxWcnB)

The fun thing is: even if it was an elaborate secret-service recruitment
drive, I'd feel a bit let down that it wasn't something "more."

~~~
vex
Like the header says, it had been paraphrased/had structure modified to remove
watermarking elements unique to each individual it was sent to.

~~~
mootothemax
_Like the header says, it had been paraphrased /had structure modified to
remove watermarking elements unique to each individual it was sent to._

Yeah, that's kind of what I mean as well.

If it'd been written to only a few people, there are an incredible number of
ways to watermark the content.

E.g. did all of the emails even include a questionnaire? Were some emails 5
words long, and others 5 paragraphs?

I guess the easy/lazy way would be to tailor the questions to each unique
email.

Basically, I think the sanitation excuse is a bit too convenient, and an
attempt to buy into the super-secret mythology.

------
userbinator
Does anyone else find it odd that an organisation looking for "highly
intelligent individuals" started at 4chan's /b/, of all places.

~~~
Pacabel
Where else would be a good place to start?

Going to individual academic institutions may be one way, but this would also
be quite localized, and hard to scale. It also misses intelligent people who
are unable to afford to attend such an institution, especially in a place like
the United States where the cost can be prohibitive for many, even with
scholarships and other aide.

Reddit probably isn't a good place. There's more snobbery and faux
intellectualism there than there is actual intelligence, and that's even when
focusing on the more intelligent subreddits. It's similar for those who
regularly contribute to Wikipedia. It's more about politics there than it is
about intelligence.

Digg is pretty much dead. Slashdot is nearly dead. HN has a rather limited
audience. A lot of intelligent people voluntarily choose not to use Facebook,
Google+, Twitter, or other social networks due to privacy concerns.

So 4chan does look like a reasonable alternative. There's a large audience,
its members are probably smarter on average than you'd find elsewhere, and it
avoids many of the problems with the other websites or social networks that
put a lot of focus on identity.

~~~
wging
More than that, 4chan is a source upstream of other communities you mentioned.
Content gets filtered and sifted, and some gets passed on. For example,
Rickrolling became a major phenomenon that way.

------
dil8
This is the wikia page of the process [http://uncovering-
cicada.wikia.com/wiki/Uncovering_Cicada_Wi...](http://uncovering-
cicada.wikia.com/wiki/Uncovering_Cicada_Wiki)

------
darsham
The Wikipedia article does a bad job on giving any larger perspective, that
is, the fact that this is a drop in the ocean of hacking and cryptography
wargames. [1]

[1]: [http://www.wechall.net](http://www.wechall.net)

------
mattsouth
I'd not come across this before. It's just like something out of a Neal
Stephenson or William Gibson novel.

~~~
valarauca1
This also happened a lot back in the old usenet days. Cat and Mouse puzzle
games based on bouncing around various boards.

------
l33tbro
Wasn't this posted a few months ago?

~~~
taspeotis
Yes [1].

    
    
        Cicada 3301 (wikipedia.org)
        56 points by imb 215 days ago | flag | cached | share | comments
    

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6812668](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6812668)

