113 - Weird things on the web #2 🦗: Cicada 3301
Hey there, !
Apologies that this was late - have had internet issues + public holiday so haven’t had the best time to get this out :)
However, I love this one so let’s jump in!
1.
When I was younger, I stumbled upon this game online:
It’s still out there right now - so feel free to try it! It’s an extremely unique game, where you modify the url in different ways to try and get to the next ‘level’. A labyrinth of html pages, with passwords attached to each one, source codes of websites hiding different clues, codes used in different parts of the internet (e.g. ASCII tables, hex codes, morse code) - it was wonderful fun for a bored 14 year old surfing the internet.
I think it took me a week to get super far through this - somewhere in the 40’s or 50’s? (There are 140 or so riddles in total). The clues and solutions get INCREDIBLY frustrating and difficult to do - at some points even the forums give up trying to give you clues. My favourite one (if anyone gets there) was the ‘nurlo’ clue - which ate my brain for a week! But once you solve it…ooo baby that feeling is so good.
It was my first foray into the wonderful world of the internet. Not only were there fascinatingly smart people who are making ridiculously simple yet complex games like this, but it also opened my eyes to how source codes were used, the different types of codes there are in the world, different cryptographic techniques to hide / transform information, and the power of lateral thinking. Even as research for this piece, I went back to try and get through - and I LOVED the riddles!
I remember I had to give up playing notpr0n after a while; I think I had school or something and it was time to say goodbye. But I always remembered it as a wonderful experience, and I think this was why my interest was piqued when I saw Cicada 3301.
2.
Most of the information from this piece comes from this article by Michael Grothaus in FastCompany who did a profile on a man who solved some of the puzzle of Cicada 3301.
Essentially, in 2012, message boards were inundated with a message, stating:
Hello. We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, we have devised a test. There is a message hidden in the image. Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few who will make it all the way through. Good luck. - 3301
Through an entertaining read following the mind of someone who solved a lot of the puzzles, Joel Eriksson, you find out that the initial message leads to:
- a cypher, which leads to..
- an image of a duck, which leads to…
- a book code of a Mayan book on reddit, which leads to…
- a phone number, which, after dialing, leads to…
- a math problem, which leads to…
- a number of geographical co-ordinates across the world (Paris, Warsaw, Seoul, Seattle, Miami, Sydney), which each had a cicada picture and QR code attached to telephone poles, which led to…
- a William Gibson poem, which lead to…
- an anonymous Tor site (on the darknet), where Cicada3301 stopped the task, as apparently, they didn’t like that groups had been set up to solve the whole task together.
Each of these stages was accompanied by an image of a cicada picture (either a website or a QR code), and a countdown on when new content would be uploaded. It was terribly complex and complicated, but used a lot of logic and cryptographic techniques to solve a mystery.
In 2013 and 2014, Cicada3301 published challenges once more. This is detailed here by David Kushner of Rolling Stone, and includes some tantalising details of people who were successful in joining Cicada3301. First though, the riddles:
In 2013, the message read:
“Hello again. Our search for intelligent individuals now continues. The first clue is hidden within this image. Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few that will make it all the way through. Good luck. 3301.”
Another riddle! This culminated in:
- a cipher based on a book by occultist Aleister Crowley
- a riddle embedded in a song, an amplified guitar instrumental that, upon spectral analysis, revealed a humming sound at a frequency of 15.4 to 16.1 kilohertz, which an analysis of the mp3 file uncovered a hidden message: “Like the instar, tunneling to the surface, we must shed our own circumferences; find the divinity within and emerge.”
- In addition, more coordinates, and more Cicada images tacked to telephone poles.
2014 came by, and yes, another riddle came up! This time, the Navy had tried to do a ‘Cicada-like’ challenge to try and recruit cryptographers and other intelligent people to their ranks.
Okay okay, yes Cicada3301 returned:
“Hello. Epiphany is upon you. Your pilgrimage has begun. Enlightenment awaits.”
However, this time around, it didn’t seem like many people were able to crack it. And from then on, no more riddles were posted online.
3.
According to this article, the two teens who joined Cicada3301 were tasked with building tech on the darknet. A lot of these seemed to point to some anonymous syndicate who were creating censorship-proof technologies (e.g. CAKES - the Cicada Anonymous Key Escrow System - designed to be a dead-man’s switch for sensitive information). My favourite part of this story is that one of the kids, Tekk, stopped contributing to the team because he had a summer job to get to. Hilarious.
No information has come out about who this group were, or who they were working for. Some people have theorised that they were highly organised cyber-terrorists looking for cryptographers to hack into secure online facilities. Some have theorised that it was started by intelligence agencies in nations across the world trying to recruit the best and brightest.
A ‘welcome email’ was sent to the two teens that gives a bit of a view into who they might be:
“Congratulations. Your month of testing has come to an end. Out of the thousands who attempted it, you are one of only a few who have succeeded. There is one last step, although there will not be any hidden codes or secret messages or physical treasure hunts. This last step is only honesty. We have always been honest with you, and we expect you to be honest with us in return.
“You have all wondered who we are, and so we shall now tell you we are an international group. We have no name. We have no symbol. We have no membership rosters. We do not have a public website, and we do not advertise ourselves. We are a group of individuals who have proven ourselves much like you have by completing this recruitment contest, and we are drawn together by common beliefs. A careful reading of the texts used in the contest would have revealed some of these beliefs, that tyranny and oppression of any kind must end, that censorship is wrong and that privacy is an inalienable right.
“We are not a hacker group, nor are we a warez group. We do not engage in illegal activity, nor do our members. If you are engaged in illegal activity, we ask that you cease any and all illegal activities or decline membership at this time. We will not ask questions if you decline. However, if you lie to us, we will find out.
“You are undoubtedly wondering what it is that we do. We are much like a think tank, in that our primary focus is on researching and developing techniques to aid the ideas we advocate: liberty, privacy, security.”
What do you think?
Chat soon :)
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✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Swindled - a podcast about white collar crime that has a weird vibe but wonderful stories. The guy talks in a low, monotonous voice, and uses a background buzz that makes the whole vibe ominous and foreboding…but the content is fantastic. You get to learn about a wide variety of conmen and women, preying on the weak and cashing out their ill-gotten gains. Some of the ways they go about it is atrocious but super interesting to hear about. Have a listen!
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Shiva Baby - a movie I recently watched which was FANTASTIC (also, in person, so how good!). It’s a tense comedy movie where a sugar baby bumps into her sugar daddy at a Jewish shiva (a funeral / celebration of the dead). The shots and cinematography push you close-up, almost too much, giving you a feeling of claustrophobia and anxiety for the main character’s plight. The drama of her family, the confrontations with the sugar daddy as well as her ex-girlfriend who’s there as well…all melt together in a nail-bitingly tense movie. If you like Uncut Gems, you’ll love this. REALLY liked this - highly recommended!
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Unresolved: Cicada3301 - I stumbled across this article which reminded me of the time I read about this yonks ago. It gave me the links and formed a good portion of my research.
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The Incredible Fig - learned more than I wanted to about figs. Never say I don’t read widely :D
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The rise and fall of an industry based on missed calls in India - essentially, what we used to call ‘pranking’ - just calling someone then instantly hanging up. That can translate to so much as a signal! Adopting that behaviour to create a business? That’s capitalism, baby ;)