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FBI Overwhelmed With 'Solutions' To Encrypted Note
An anonymous reader writes "Recently the FBI asked for the public's help in solving the encryption in a note linked to a man's murder. Well, they got so much 'help' it has overwhelmed the agency's phone and email systems. Dan Olson, chief of the FBI's Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), urged potential code-breakers to send their tips via mail rather than sending emails or flooding phone lines. 'We don't have the bandwidth to handle the emails we're getting,' Olson told FoxNews.com on Thursday. 'We're getting a bunch [of responses].' Suggested solutions range from a list of the dead man's medication schedule to instructions from a computer repair technician: 'He is speaking to a computer tech on how to fix his computer,' one message read."
to be slashdotted.
Sig? Heil
"Told us it was something to do with drinking Ovaltine. I don't really get it."
How is it easier to handle snail mail than it is e-mail? How does one grep snail mail for starters?
CS-
My girlfriend is about 5’7”, weighs around 130 and has brown hair and brown eyes. She is white and while she’s not fat, she is a tiny bit overweight. She has a huge round butt which is very soft.
My first experience with it was in the forest on a walk, she let me kneel behind her and put my nose in her jeans-clad butt to sniff it for a few seconds. She got nervous stopped.
Later, she farted on the couch- It was a small rip, and she stood up so that I could sniff it. It had hardly any smell to it, and she looked embarrassed. Later still, she stopped on the stairs with me behind her and let me put my nose between her cheeks again. I felt her pushing to try and fart, and I felt a tiny bubble, but it didn’t stink. At night, she sat on my face in jeans and rubbed her butthole over my nose. I could smell a fart, but I didn’t hear it. I also followed her outside when she told me she had to fart and knelt behind her and buried my face in her jeans. She let out a five-second silent fart, and I sniffed- It was weak, but still very eggy.
The next day she woke me up and sat on my face for about 5 seconds in her pajamas, which where pink and very soft, letting my nose press up against her butthole and her cheeks spread over my face. I sniffed, and it smelled slightly like rotten eggs. Later she told me that she had farted just before she sat down. Later in the morning she told me she had to fart and lifted up her butt off the couch. I knelt down and put my nose under her raised cheek, which wasn’t high enough for me to get my nose to the source. I heard a long rumble and I sniffed, and It smelled earthy and eggy. She did another quiet one that I sniffed like that for about 30 seconds. She went to the bathroom and let me smell the air afterwards. It smelled eggy and poopy, and I stayed until the smell dissipated, which took about 10 minutes.
The next day, we went to a store for nerdy things like DnD and other such stuff. While there, I heard her rip a quiet fart. I stayed in the area and the terrible eggy scent wafted up to me, and lasted about 30 seconds. She was embarrassed to fart in public. She did another in a jewelry store, but it was silent. It stunk just as bad, and I think the person working smelled it.
Later, she decided to play some video games, and while she was playing I would sniff her butt every now and again. She said she had to fart, so I picked up a stuffed cow and she sat on it and let it rip quietly. I sniffed it, and it was eggy and trapped in the fabric. she said “Does it smell good?” I offered her the cow, and she sniffed it and made a face of disgust. Once when I was sniffing, she ripped a very stinky fart that smelled like rotten eggs and onions- It was a two parter that went Bluurp bruuuunt- and I sniffed it from her jeans. I told her how stinky they were and she laughed. Then I felt her clench her cheeks, and a quiet but very bubbly fart came out and she said “I did another one!”
When we were in the car, she would fart on my hand and then let me sniff it. Once after Italian food, she rolled up the window and ripped a loud raspy one. The whole car filled up with an eggy smell, and she said “Don’t look at me after I fart!”.
She gave me a good face-fart in her pajamas- She
Stood in front of me and I twisted so she could sit on my nose. She sat and spread her butt cheeks apart and ripped a silent fart that stunk of eggs. She let go of her bottom and her asscheeks spread over my face, sealing my nose in her stinky fart. It was even more intense when she let her butt spread over my face, it smelled three times as bad. She did another one a few minutes later and it was even longer, and I could feel the heat on my face. At the end, it made a rasp, low-pitched squeak. “Did you hear the squeak?” she asked, as she settled her butt over my face.
She ripped a terrible one on the couch- She was mid sit when she stopped and let out a four-second series of juicy pops and cracks.
That is what it sounds like to me too. Morons are just suggesting possibilities of what it could be rather than actually solving the problem.
That's what happens when you involve the general population of idiots.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Well done a mysterious black van is heading to your house.... right now.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
but we do have the bandwidth to stick our noses in everyone elses business..
It must be reliable, the guys at Fox are geniuses...
[...]according to emails sent to FoxNews.com[...]
"He is speaking to a computer tech on how to fix his computer," one message read. "He is trying to write down the instruction as the tech tells him."
...that apparently can't recognize a joke when they read it.
This. We haven't broken it, but there is definitive progress. The thread at Bruce Scheier's has best signal to noise ratio, there only one in ten try to make jokes about ovaltine, compared to one in three elsewhere.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Or by re-reading you post, you do. And I need coffee.
Well, I don't think anyone knows yet, but the 'medication schedule' reference probably refers to this comment hanging off this Yahoo News article that I personally found pretty convincing (sorry - I don't know how to link to the comment directly, but it's from 'John')
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110329/ts_yblog_thelookout/fbi-asks-public-for-help-breaking-encrypted-notes-tied-to-1999-murder#mwpphu-container
I checked out the reference (since removed, oddly) that people who are bipolar often keep long-term records of medication schedules and effects (page 2) and historic record of major 'episodes' (page 1) so that they can use them to try and build a personalized medication schedule over time on a bipolar support forum, and it checks out. It's also true that people with bipolar disorder are encouraged to keep them secret, and so would be like to keep coded versions of these notes in case they were found.
----
(from the comment - 'John')
It is a shorthand log of historic episodes in the mid seventies on (page 1, actually written second, but numbered one to keep events in chrono order) and medications taken with the effects listed. The key at the end is day week month year morning day latenight. It was started on page 2 and then page 1 was added as a log of the earlier childhood which is the basis for diagnosis and the "page 2" is indepth records of changes in meds. The 3 month periods are normal with bipolar episodes in the 4th QTR (September through December in the seventies. These seasons suggest seasonal disorder.
ALPNTE GLSE-SE ERTE
A: Latenight, Phenergan, taken in evening G: Latenight Serenace/Seroquel or Seroquel/Serenace Extended Release Taken Evening
VLSE MTSE-CTSE-WSE-FRTSE
V: Late Serenace Morning take Serenace
On page 1 are lists of manic episodes
(FLRSEPRSEONDE71NCBE)
From late september really severe episode on December 1971: No cause before episode
(CDNSEPRSEONSF/DE74NCBE)
Chronic Depression in September, really severe episode on the start of December in 1974, no cause before episode
26MLSE74SPRKSE29KENOSOLE173R7RSE
2x 6mg Serenace in 1974 or 2x 600mg Seroquel in 1974
99-84.B2UNEPLSENCRSEAOLTSENSKSENRSE
1999 through 1988
NSREOUSEPUTSEWLDUCBE(3XORL)
D-W-M-YH/MD/IL XDRLX
Day weekday month year: morning day or latenight
--- (further comment from 'John')
I'm bipolar and we are told to keep such logs in short-hand because, though we are protected by laws, we are told to stay in the closet, because so many violent crimes are caused by bipolars. If we just came out of the closet, people might realize that those of us who are medicated are fully functional and safe. And we are 2 to 10 % of the population, possibly from recent environmental and stress related aggrevators. But it does take very detailed traking to get our medication right and knowing the triggers is key: week days might relate to work triggers, months to seasonal disorder and times of day are critical to knowing when to take meds and how much. The nature of this note suggests that he is having an episode and is thinking faster than he can write.
'This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it' - Eeyore
Management runs FBIT over 15 years 5 major multi-billions of failures in automation of field+HQ offices.
What is easier for many on /. may be near impossible for the FBI.
The FBI field and lab folks are very good, but they don't set policy on what FBIT will do. Many are isolated from collaboration, aggregation... with other FBI peers.
Management is in charge of failure at the strategic level, because strategy is policy and plan without tactical actuality.
IOW: Any idiot can plan from the top down, but only the worker-bees/pack-mules can build from the bottom up. Contractors work for management not the employees. Management needs a committee of IT competent field+HQ offices branch personnel applying upper-level policy/plans and working to build what really needs to work together.
This is a common problem with .com, .gov, .mil... large organizations. What management wants needs should be need to be tailored to fit the field/branch and HQ offices as individual unique and as unified community. You can put a shirt on like pants, but without the belt-loops, it is a king's new cloths incident.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
If that's supposed to be a euphemism for something else then I'm quite sure it's illegal no matter where in the world you are.
It is a shorthand log of historic episodes in the mid seventies on (page 1, actually written second, but numbered one to keep events in chrono order) and medications taken with the effects listed. The key at the end is day week month year morning day latenight. It was started on page 2 and then page 1 was added as a log of the earlier childhood which is the basis for diagnosis and the "page 2" is indepth records of changes in meds. The 3 month periods are normal with bipolar episodes in the 4th QTR (September through December in the seventies. These seasons suggest seasonal disorder.
ALPNTE GLSE-SE ERTE
A: Latenight, Phenergan, taken in evening G: Latenight Serenace/Seroquel or Seroquel/Serenace Extended Release Taken Evening
VLSE MTSE-CTSE-WSE-FRTSE
V: Late Serenace Morning take Serenace
Seroquel wasn't approved by the FDA until 1997, and Serenace I can find records of only as a drug used internationally for animals... although its primary ingredient, haloperidol, was FDA-approved in 1967 or so as the drug Haldol. So ... Serenace is more likely than Seroquel, which didn't exist in the 1970s...
(pedant mode off)
To