mjmooney Posted December 1, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted December 1, 2011 UK intelligence agency GCHQ has launched a code-cracking competition to help attract new talent. The organisation has invited potential applicants to solve a visual code posted at an unbranded standalone website. The challenge has also been "seeded" to social media sites, blogs and forums. A spokesman said the campaign aimed to raise the profile of GCHQ to an audience that would otherwise be difficult to reach. "The target audience for this particular campaign is one that may not typically be attracted to traditional advertising methods and may be unaware that GCHQ is recruiting for these kinds of roles," the spokesman said. "Their skills may be ideally suited to our work and yet they may not understand how they could apply them to a working environment, particularly one where they have the opportunity to contribute so much." The competition began in secret on 3 November and will continue until 12 December. GCHQ said that once the code was cracked individuals would be presented with a keyword to enter into a form field. They would then be redirected to the agency's recruitment website. The organisation said it was not worried that the problem's answer might be spread around the internet. It said it would still benefit because the resulting discussion would "generate future recruitment enquiries". However, it added that anyone who had previously hacked illegally would be ineligible. The agency's website also states that applicants must be British citizens. The move was hinted at two months ago when Prime Minister David Cameron presented his government's response to the Intelligence and Security Committee's annual report. The document noted the committee had concerns about GCHQ's "inability to retain a suitable cadre of internet specialists" to respond to cyber threats. It said that the Cabinet Office supported "initiatives such as the Cyber Security Challenge, which promotes careers in cyber security via annual competitions and events". Screen shot of the code breaking challenge Anyone who breaks the code will be invited to apply for a job Following this the government announced last week that it would set up a specialist department within GCHQ. The Joint Cyber Unit will concentrate on tackling the growing threat of cyber attacks from organised criminals, terrorists, hostile states and hacktivists. GCHQ claimed that this was the first time this sort of challenge had ever been conducted by an organisation to target these sorts of skills. However, the agency has used unusual recruitment methods in the past. In 2009, it placed video content, themes and downloadable pictures on the Xbox Live network which appeared during Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed and other video games. Two years earlier, it targeted gamers by placing digital posters in online titles including Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas and Splinter Cell Double Agent.BBC This code is HERE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiggyrichard Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Just to let you know...upthewrongun is not the keyword! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Where to even start??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 bang goes any chance of me getting any work done for the next 7 or 8 minutes whilst i crack it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiggyrichard Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 A Beautiful Mind springs to mind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommybringsgiants Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 It looks like html with some broken code in there.... I have no patience to even try these things, I could'nt think of a worse job than looking at code all day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 ok taking me a bit longer than i thought but i'm fairly sure it's x86 machine code program so it shouldn't take me much longer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 1, 2011 Author VT Supporter Share Posted December 1, 2011 done.Have you applied for the job, then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 No, I'm happy with what I have already got thanks as tommy said, who wants to crack puzzles for a living? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 if you had cracked it you would know that there is no job offer .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Has anyone actually cracked it? Or am i just being dumb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Well if you've cracked it you'd know tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcarpet Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Well if you've cracked it you'd know tony Any clues for those of us who are struggling to work it out? I know what happens when you crack it so I know its not a big deal if you give out a couple of pointers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 i'm not sure about you guys, but i've got an advert for kgb deals at the bottom of my page. they're onto me i reckon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Has anyone actually cracked it? Or am i just being dumb? it's not a code that can be cracked in the conventional sense , you need to know base64 , machine code ..in other words it's more for computer geeks Levi will be along shortly :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 Thanks for saving me the effort tony. A Computer Geek, I am not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 i'm not sure about you guys, but i've got an advert for kgb deals at the bottom of my page. they're onto me i reckon. I don't see them... but I am a paying member of this forum :winkold: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 You dont need to use base64 or machine code, anyone can do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b6bloke Posted December 1, 2011 Share Posted December 1, 2011 50 people have completed it so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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