Fancy working for the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters? How about travelling to a completely different universe and being stuck on an ancient ship with a cute redhead and amoral scientist by solving a weird puzzle in an MMO? Sadly, the second option was cancelled earlier this year, but you can still have a go at the first by solving this base 16-inspired code.
OK, not inspired. It is base-16, or hexadecimal on the outside. You can convert it to base-10, or ASCII, or whatever you feel like. However you go about it, you have eight-and-a-half days to solve it and enter the appropriate keyword or phrase (“shaken, not stirred” is incorrect, by the way). If you do, I imagine SAS will be knocking on your door for recruitment and/or sanctioning purposes, or you’ll be unexpected whisked away by an Asgard teleportation device. Both sound exciting and potential deadly.
Seriously though, it’s GCHQ’s attempt to find the intelligent to look over intelligence and reminiscence over the wondrous efforts of Bletchley Park. Who knows, this could be the start of your metamorphosis into a walking, talking bombe.
The decrypting type, not the exploding type.
Spy agency looking to net recruits via viral online game [DVICE]
Merus
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 1:49 PMFirstly, what are you on about with this spaceship thing, Logan.
Secondly, internet scuttlebutt suggests that this is machine code, so it’s actual serious hackery and not hex-to-ASCII or something silly like that.
Logan Booker
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 1:58 PMI may have subjected myself to Stargate Universe recently.
Arcane
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 2:40 PMThey went to somewhere else in our own universe, Logan. Not a completely different one.
But completely right about the cute red head.
mattroe
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 3:55 PMYesssss, SGU was awesome, I appreciated your reference :P
Chazz
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 9:13 PMStargate’s lowest point ever. Glad that was cancelled.
Thom
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 12:38 AMAgreed. There was one episode in the first season involving time travel that was such a mess of cliches and plot holes it was a strong contender for worst hour of television ever made.
Also, the plot reminded me way to much of voyager. *shudder*
cbrate
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 3:51 PMWhy would you bother when the private sector is so much better?
Ghazarios
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 4:59 PMPrivate sector? Of intelligence?
Examples? So I can spend the next hour on Wikipedia looking at them? Haha.
CrowdedTrousers
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 8:55 AMdepends on your personal definition of ‘better’:
If you want to do the really serious freaky shiz – it’s government (turn to page 18)
While if you seek fat salaries – make for private (turn to page 72)
Ahtaps
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 9:55 PMMan, all I ever get at the jobs I interview for is a stock test that asks questions about software engineering. The article I read about this highlighted that it’s a fantastic way to encourage enthusiasts and people with no previous industry experience to apply because the GCHQ is looking for ability, not how good your resume looks. Of course, the usual strict background checks and that apply so you had better make sure you haven’t been caught hacking the mainframe or engaging in TV station VCR wars with Angelina Jolie.
Grim
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 9:57 PMWhy do I get the suspicion that British Intelligence would not hire a non-UK citizen?
Crypted
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 7:06 PMit’s not worth it, at the end all you get is a message saying that you passed, and a button “apply” for a job…
http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/soyoudidit.asp
there’s a link to the end.
Franz
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 7:52 PMSomeone cracked the website instead of the code?, lol, there’s the real crack.
Crypted
Sunday, December 4, 2011 at 8:01 PMyou know it.
but here’s the code regardless: Pr0t3ct!on#cyber_security@12*12.2011+
Oaklawyer
Monday, December 5, 2011 at 4:12 PMhahahahah that’s awesome