On January 4, 2012, a cryptic message began appearing on message boards across the internet, and ran for approximately a month. Claiming to be searching for “highly intelligent individuals”, it prompted people to search for a hidden message within an image that accompanied the post. The message was signed by a group called Cicada 3301. The hidden message led to a series of puzzles that were to be solved in order to find the next clue. Another puzzle has appeared every consecutive year, always on January 4th, except for 2015. This message has baffled thousands of amateur cryptologists and caused much speculation of its purpose.
One of the few people to have solved the mystery is Joel Eriksson, who is a cryptosecurity researcher and developer from Sweden. He first believed that the puzzle was only a small brain teaser, but was quickly proven wrong. To solve the mystery, he would have to use a host of skills: Steganography, cryptography, an understanding of ancient Mayan numerology and a familiarity with cyberpunk speculative fiction. Clues were even left in 14 cities around the world. Eventually, the quest would even lead him into the “dark web”, which can only be accessed using specific software, configurations or authorization to access and is heavily encrypted, due to some of the illegal activity that happens.
Eriksson first used a steganography software to extract a message that was a URL within the first image, which led to a website with a duck image posted. Again using steganography, he found a hidden book code list of two numbers separated by a colon that brought him to a Reddit URL with Mayan numerals on the top of the page. The Mayan numbers turned out to be a key for the cypher required for several posts by an anonymous user that seemed to contain encoded text. That text then revealed itself to be a Texan phonenumber. Upon calling the number, he received a message that read: “Very good. You have done well. There are three prime numbers associated with the original final.jpg image. 3301 is one of them. You will have to find the other two. Multiply all three of these numbers together and add a .com to find the next step. Good luck. Goodbye.”
Cicada 3301
By Bridget X.
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