HACKER

A Swedish specialist criptoseguridad got decipher all tracks by an anonymous puzzle.

Two years ago an encrypted message appeared on the Internet pointing be looking at the "smarter" individuals. It was called the puzzle Cicada ( cicada ) 3301. The mission was to decipher the hidden secret message is an image . A man came to the end, but it was not easy.

Joel Eriksson is one of those "intelligent" beings who gave the secret message hidden under many codes . "Unfortunately I did not see the picture until some time after it was originally published , and therefore had to catch up ," he confessed to FastCoLabs Eriksson , a division of Fast Company.

Eriksson , Swedish researcher criptoseguridad 34, thought at first that it would be " nice " to do this puzzle . "I've always been interested in everything that can challenge me , and I never give up. In the case of the cicada, the puzzle was much more than I thought it would be when I started , " he says.

Yeah, it was not easy. Eriksson had to tackle the enigma conconocimientos steganography (a special branch of cryptography ) , understanding of Maya numerology, and something like atemas fiction ' cyberpunk '. The investigation was performed only in the digital domain as it had to follow clues that physical flyers were placed in 14 cities . AL end itself had to return to the site , but deep inside her, pointing in FastCoLabs

The first thing I had to do was apply Eriksson steganography software on the original image of the cicada and so extract a coded message , in which each number or letter actually corresponded with a completely different point .

Decipher the message , which was actually a URL. RUL put this in your Internet browser and got another picture , this time of a duck. He used the same tools and got a code book, which led him to an address containing Reddit Mayan numbers.

An anonymous user on Reddit let another series of messages encrypted under simple comments , this could decipher the "book " and previously found more images on codes. He found that he tried to a string of numbers , in fact, a phone number redirected to a voicemail Texas. "Okay . You did great . There are three prime numbers associated final.jpg the original image . 3301 is one of them . You have to find the other two. Multiply these three numbers together and add . Com to find the next step. Good luck. Goodbye . "

Ericksson managed to do the calculations and reached the expected URL where you expect another image of cicada and a countdown. When the countdown finished , the image of lacigarra was replaced by strings of digits that resembled the GPS coordinates. The coordinates led to telephone poles in countries around the world, including Spain , Russia, USA, France , Japan and Poland. In Spain the track was laid in Granada .

The Swedish engineer had to rely on other people in other countries to gain access to the images as they could not afford the trip. In mobile posts were flyers with pictures of cicadas and QR codes.

He scanned the codes, which led him to more images with hidden text . Finally again use information unadirección Reddit and ended in the Tor anonymity network . This is less than three weeks .

However was very disappointed when he arrived at site, Cicada 3301 had written a message criticizing that had formed groups to solve a puzzle designed for one person . Until there came the riddle.

"It was very disappointing ," Eriksson said. Still do not know who is the person behind Cicada 3301. Apparently this year has launched another enigma.