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Secret Agents Hold Code-Breaking Contest
Spudley writes "I just heard on the BBC that the British Government's not-so-secret code breaking organisation, GCHQ, has launched a little Christmas crypto challenge for all you budding secret agents. Should be fun to try it out... even if you're not brave enough to actually send in an entry."
... is obviously 42.
Drink your ovaltine?
Unknown host pong.
that page just looks like a few columns of perl code to me.
Trolling is a art,
I live a mile from GCHQ - it looks like a huge donut, and is apparently mostly built underground. The scarey thing is that I recently read that it's the second most desirable terrorist target after the Whitehouse. Nice!
Sunday you're Thinking Different, Monday you're a huge tool, paying too much and waiting to think like everyone else.
You win the contest, they recruit you, then you spend the rest of your life drinking vodka martinis, getting shot at, and having gorgeous women fall at your feet. (Time to start code breaking!)
They'll know
1) You're too smart for the good of the country and
2) You're disloyal enough to cozy up to a foreign spy agency.
Can you say "do-not-fly list"? Thought so.
GCHQ has launched a little Christmas crypto challenge for all you budding secret agents. To submit your entry to the challenge, just pick up your phone, call your mother, and tell her your solution!
it would be a good bet in my mind it will be something like what they did before (people tend to repeat themselves)so... previously on gchq
Each of the six extracts is encrypted with a simple substitution cipher. In the first extract, this is a straightforward shift: P=A, Q=B, R=C etc.
In extracts two to six, the ciphertext alphabet is formed by taking a keyword, removing those letters that occur more than once in the keyword, and then adding all remaining letters in alphabetical order. For example, in extract two, the keyword is MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. By taking out those letters that are repeated in the keyword, we are left with: MURDESINTHOG. We then add all unused letters in alphabetical order to give us: MURDESINTHOGABCFJKLPQVWXYZ.
Finally, the alphabet is shifted to give the keyword PUZZLE as the encryption of A in each alphabet in turn (as read down the left hand side of the grid).
1) And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho."
Joshua chapter 2. The Bible, c.550 BC. (An early reference to intelligence gathering.)
2) Many years ago I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Legrand. He was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a series of misfortunes had reduced him to want.
Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination: The Gold Bug. The Dollar Newspaper, Philadelphia, 1843. (The first extensive treatment of cryptanalysis in fiction.)
Keyword: MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (another famous short story by Poe).
3) Holmes had been seated for some hours in silence with his long, thin back curved over a chemical vessel in which he was brewing a particularly malodorous product.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Dancing Men, The Strand Magazine, 1903. (Another fictional example of a substitution cipher.)
Keyword: MYCROFT HOLMES (Sherlock Holmes's brother).
4) The American handed Leamas another cup of coffee and said, "Why don't you go back and sleep? We can ring you if he shows up."
John Le Carre, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Victor Gollancz, 1963. (The third in the series of books featuring George Smiley, one of the best known fictional agents.)
Keyword: GEORGE SMILEY (main character in this series of books).
5) An Act to make provision about the Secret Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Headquarters, including provision for the issue of warrants and authorisations
(The Act of Parliament allowing GCHQ to operate, and defining its accountability to Parliament and the public.)
Keyword: ELIZABETH THE SECOND (signatory of the Act), Intelligence Services Act 1994.
6) On the morning of Wednesday, 15 October 1586, Queen Mary entered the crowded courtroom at Fotheringhay Castle. (Some editions of this book list the day as Saturday)
Simon Singh, The Code Book. Fourth Estate, 1999. (Singh's book is a recent tour de force on the subject of cryptography.)
Keyword: FOURTH ESTATE (publisher).
This is not about promoting research. Most people think (with some reason that spying agencias like GCHQ are somewhat creepy. So they promote a nice and cuddly puzzle contest as if to say 'Look, we are just regular guys who like to have some fun and read other countries' diplomatic mail every now and then'.
Reminds me a bit of the CIA Homepage for Kids , but not nearly as weird.
From the challenge page:
Screw that. If a bunch of secret agents are running a contest, I expect to win at least a friggin' mini-missile launching pen or some C4 toothpaste w/ detonator toothbrush.
Wait -- maybe the books are hollowed out and contain flasks that convert into single-shot 9mm pistols!
Too bad I can't even balance my checkbook, let alone compete in this contest. If you win, let us know if the books including an expandable titanium katana sword bookmark.
IronChefMorimoto