Can anyone solve this puzzle?
In January 2012, a picture was posted on the notorious message board 4Chan.
In white text on a black background, the posted message read: "Hello. We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, we have devised a test.
"There is a message hidden in 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."
Signed "3301".
That message led to a series of puzzles which got progressively harder. Co-operation became necessary and, at first, was encouraged. No single person could solve every puzzle.
The final puzzle directed players to a website on an anonymous browser. Only the fastest would see what was on the page because it was quickly replaced with the statement "We want the best, not the followers." For those, Cicada was over.
Then, a year and a day a new message appeared.
"Hello again. Our search for intelligent individuals now continues,"
Then this…
"Hello. Epiphany is upon you. Your pilgrimage has begun. Enlightenment awaits."
Each puzzle that was solved led to another darkweb site, with another image, and more puzzles. This went on for another year and the there was silence.
One of the winners leaked this email:
"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 may never know who solved the Cicada 3301 puzzle and where it led, but it can be fun to imagine.
Image courtesy of: Rastko Milenkovic, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0003ZOP5NT6CAD24-C116-F4.jpg
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/10/cicada-3301-i-tried-the-hardest-puzzle-on-the-internet-and-failed-spectacularly