GCHQ code-breaking challenge cracked by Google search | Hacker News Reader

GCHQ code-breaking challenge cracked by Google search

theregister.co.uk

17 pointsrshm7 comments

The Register links to a Sophos blog, which links to this site:

(http://www.alwaysbetesting.co.uk/seo/how-to-crack-the-gchq-c...)

Since the reg is notoriously unreliable it's probably a good idea to follow the guidelines:

> Please submit the original source. If a blog post reports on something they found on another site, submit the latter.

The success page is about as uninspiring as it gets, and I can't see that people who actually solved this problem would stand out from all other applicants - it just funnels into the same application process.

http://canyoucrackit.co.uk/soyoudidit.asp

"So you did it. Well done! Now this is where it gets interesting. Could you use your skills and ingenuity to combat terrorism and cyber threats? As one of our experts, you'll help protect our nation's security and the lives of thousands. Every day will bring new challenges, new solutions to find – and new ways to prove that you're one of the best."

It's funny that they go for ego-stroking rather than for something that baits people who are smart enough to crack an encryption scheme. It reads like typical Go Army marketing.

Not sure why you're dissociating ego-stroking from "smart enough to crack an encryption scheme". Ego-stroking works pretty well, and if you look at most of the cryptographers out there, they're not doing it for the money.

Yep, and that page links you to http://www.gchq-careers.co.uk/cyber-jobs/ which is equally linked to by anyone who didn't solve the puzzle but just looked on http://www.gchq-careers.co.uk/Jobs/

That said: you would never expect them to use the online test as a deciding factor in interviewing people, they can do tests as part of the application process. Really it's just a marketing campaign, and a way to let people self-test themselves to see if they are suitable.

Except at the interview it will quickly become apparent if you don't know enough about cryptography.

The contest did not do that either considering it was more about x86 assembly.

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