GCHQ spy quiz to find next generation of James Bonds

Geniuses who can solve this cryptic code could be on their way to a £60,000-a-year job as a SPY.

AWVLI QIQVT QOSQO ELGCV IIQWD LCUQE EOENN WWOAO

LTDNU QTGAW TSMDO QTLAO QSDCH PQQIQ DQQTQ OOTUD

BNIQH BHHTD UTEET FDUEA UMORE SQEQE MLTME TIREC

LICAI QATUN QRALT ENEIN RKG

GCHQ, the Government’s top secret listening centre, has dreamed up the mind-boggling puzzle to help recruit codebreakers.

Cracking the code – blocks of seemingly random letters- will lead candidates into a devious internet “treasure hunt” for the final answer.

The Can You Find It? competition is designed to test both experienced and self-taught techies to crack a series of cryptic codes.

An online treasure hunt provides a series of clues, leading to a number of different places around the world-wide web which will ultimately unlock the final answer.

> Can you crack this secret code?

Probably. The letter frequency matches what would be expected if it were a straight substitution of one letter for another. There are 13 Qs (try substitute E), 12 Ts and 11 Es (try substitute R/A) and work from there.

By the way, was reading Kevin Mitnick’s autobiography recently. Each chapter starts with a different secret code. I could only decipher (by hand) about one in five. I assume that the web search leads to progressively more difficult codes.

mollwollfumble said:

> Can you crack this secret code?

Probably. The letter frequency matches what would be expected if it were a straight substitution of one letter for another. There are 13 Qs (try substitute E), 12 Ts and 11 Es (try substitute R/A) and work from there.

Q is a space.

a computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human www dot metro dot co dot uk slash turing

this is the lunchtime menu at GCHQ

anyway, people who do this stuff aren’t spies they are codebreakers – they have a bad habit of dying in suspicious circumstances

Riff-in-Thyme said:

GCHQ spy quiz to find next generation of James Bonds

Geniuses who can solve this cryptic code could be on their way to a £60,000-a-year job as a SPY.

With those skills you could earn a lot more than 60k/year… probably best that they just advertise the 007 bit ;-)

What a load of cobblers, it’s just some PR stunt to humanise a bunch of zombies who follow whatever orders they are given, no matter how treasonous or despicable.

Would there even be code breakers today? Or would a computer program look for patterns and try a million variations in a matter of seconds to get a best fit?

Anywho said:

Would there even be code breakers today? Or would a computer program look for patterns and try a million variations in a matter of seconds to get a best fit?

Well, there are people who work in cryptography . However, the best modern encryption methods are extremely difficult to break. Some methods (eg the one-time pad) are theoretically unbreakable, but it’s not always practical to use such methods.

Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker’s War, 1941-1945

a good read.

Anywho said:

What a load of cobblers, it’s just some PR stunt to humanise a bunch of zombies who follow whatever orders they are given, no matter how treasonous or despicable.

Would there even be code breakers today? Or would a computer program look for patterns and try a million variations in a matter of seconds to get a best fit?

unlikely

computers use brute force as you’ve alluded to crack codes

the Russians were already wise to the enigma code being broken, this is why after the war when the enigma machine was being sold around the world , the Russians quite wisely declined and only used one time codes.

the main driving force behind cracking the enigma machine was eventually bumped off by british intelligence that itself had been infiltrated by Russian intelligence who encouraged the british to get rid of their top people. when the scientists start being killed by their own side its a sure sign that your intelligence agency has been taken over to work against its employers.

Given that the most talented non-professional code-breakers are black-hat hackers, I’m not sure that ASIO or ASIS would find the correct people this way.

I know more about ASIO than ASIS. ASIS used to be and perhaps still is the Australian signals intelligence unit.

Anywho said:

What a load of cobblers, it’s just some PR stunt to humanise a bunch of zombies who follow whatever orders they are given, no matter how treasonous or despicable.

Would there even be code breakers today? Or would a computer program look for patterns and try a million variations in a matter of seconds to get a best fit?

I totally disagree about “bunch of zombies”. So far as I can tell, the operating brief of ASIO is to protect all Australian government personnel from threats of all sorts, which is quite a big ask and a very important job. It operates under the Attorney General’s department which “Provides expert support to the government on the maintenance and improvement of Australia’s system of law and justice”. There are more than a few nutters who want to destroy ASIO in general and all its personnel in particular.

There were code-breakers in ASIO only a decade or so ago, people who were originally involved in the Venona project many years earlier. They don’t normally publicise their code-cracking so I don’t know about today. Yes, computer programs are an essential part of code-breaking, but it’s only the first step. Some people have to write the software and others have to work on the usually massively-incomplete translations. And it takes very much longer than “a matter of seconds”.

I didn’t know that the Australian Supermarket Industry Ombudsman had such a far reaching directive

There’s a job vacancy in ASIO. You too can apply for a job as First Assistant Director-General Corporate and Security , salary negotiable.

mollwollfumble said:

There’s a job vacancy in ASIO. You too can apply for a job as First Assistant Director-General Corporate and Security , salary negotiable.

By hacking the site and installing yourself as Director and setting your own salary?

Challenge accepted.

Kingy said:

mollwollfumble said:

There’s a job vacancy in ASIO. You too can apply for a job as First Assistant Director-General Corporate and Security , salary negotiable.

By hacking the site and installing yourself as Director and setting your own salary?

Challenge accepted.

I am with ASIO, I’m one of their part time operatives.
I’ve had to report most of you to my handlers from time to time over the years.
You’ve all come back clean except for a few who have been placed on a watch list.
You know who you are.

Peak Warming Man said:

Kingy said:

mollwollfumble said:

There’s a job vacancy in ASIO. You too can apply for a job as First Assistant Director-General Corporate and Security , salary negotiable.

By hacking the site and installing yourself as Director and setting your own salary?

Challenge accepted.

I am with ASIO, I’m one of their part time operatives.
I’ve had to report most of you to my handlers from time to time over the years.
You’ve all come back clean except for a few who have been placed on a watch list.
You know who you are.

Taps nose.

Totally unrelated, but um, I might be, er, going on a, umm, holiday soon.

OCDC said:

Totally unrelated, but um, I might be, er, going on a, umm, holiday soon.

don’t listen to the men in white coats. it’s not really a holiday

mollwollfumble said:

There’s a job vacancy in ASIO. You too can apply for a job as First Assistant Director-General Corporate and Security , salary negotiable.

it doesn’t exactly say what qualifications you are meant to have from the download does it?

needless to say I have put my application tout de suite

Kingy said:

mollwollfumble said:

There’s a job vacancy in ASIO. You too can apply for a job as First Assistant Director-General Corporate and Security , salary negotiable.

By hacking the site and installing yourself as Director and setting your own salary?

Challenge accepted.

hey you can get the floor plans of the new asio building on line now so you could walk into your new office no probs

Peak Warming Man said:

Kingy said:

mollwollfumble said:

There’s a job vacancy in ASIO. You too can apply for a job as First Assistant Director-General Corporate and Security , salary negotiable.

By hacking the site and installing yourself as Director and setting your own salary?

Challenge accepted.

I am with ASIO, I’m one of their part time operatives.
I’ve had to report most of you to my handlers from time to time over the years.
You’ve all come back clean except for a few who have been placed on a watch list.
You know who you are.

is there any chance I could come in from the cold and be paid some handsome wad of money to be turned?

wookiemeister said:

Peak Warming Man said:

Kingy said:

By hacking the site and installing yourself as Director and setting your own salary?

Challenge accepted.

I am with ASIO, I’m one of their part time operatives.
I’ve had to report most of you to my handlers from time to time over the years.
You’ve all come back clean except for a few who have been placed on a watch list.
You know who you are.

is there any chance I could come in from the cold and be paid some handsome wad of money to be turned?

what are you putting on the table?

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

Peak Warming Man said:

I am with ASIO, I’m one of their part time operatives.
I’ve had to report most of you to my handlers from time to time over the years.
You’ve all come back clean except for a few who have been placed on a watch list.
You know who you are.

is there any chance I could come in from the cold and be paid some handsome wad of money to be turned?

what are you putting on the table?

mostly some loose change, some keys and toilet paper used as a handkerchief

wookiemeister said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

is there any chance I could come in from the cold and be paid some handsome wad of money to be turned?

what are you putting on the table?

mostly some loose change, some keys and toilet paper used as a handkerchief

then you’ll get a brown paper bag

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

what are you putting on the table?

mostly some loose change, some keys and toilet paper used as a handkerchief

then you’ll get a brown paper bag

obviously to put all this stuff into before they put me up in my new digs, sweet.

i wonder how they got saddam hussein’s wedding singer into the country who’s banged up now for snatching old ladies handbags

wookiemeister said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

mostly some loose change, some keys and toilet paper used as a handkerchief

then you’ll get a brown paper bag

obviously to put all this stuff into before they put me up in my new digs, sweet.

i wonder how they got saddam hussein’s wedding singer into the country who’s banged up now for snatching old ladies handbags

there is this chute thingy……..

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

then you’ll get a brown paper bag

obviously to put all this stuff into before they put me up in my new digs, sweet.

i wonder how they got saddam hussein’s wedding singer into the country who’s banged up now for snatching old ladies handbags

there is this chute thingy……..

ahhh parachuted behind enemy lines say no more

William Weisband, Sr. (August 28, 1908 – May 14, 1967) was an American cryptanalyst and NKVD agent (code name ‘LINK’), best known for his role in revealing U.S. decryptions of Soviet diplomatic and intelligence codes to Soviet intelligence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Weisband

The Soviets apparently had monitored Arlington Hall’s “Russian Section” since at least 1945, when Weisband joined the unit. Weisband’s earliest reports on the work being done by U.S. cryptanalysts on the Soviet diplomatic code were probably sketchy, but after Weisband began passing information on the work of the Russian Section, Soviet authorities changed their diplomatic code and the Venona project decryptions dried up. Weisband’s role as a Soviet agent was not discovered by counterintelligence officers until 1950, by which time the damage had been done. Where Weisband had sketched the outlines of U.S. cryptanalytic success, British liaison officer Kim Philby received actual translations and analyses on a regular basis after he arrived for duty in Washington, D.C., in autumn 1949. Until a thorough review of Soviet KGB archives is made, the full scope of Weisband’s role as a Soviet spy will probably not be known.

wookiemeister said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

obviously to put all this stuff into before they put me up in my new digs, sweet.

i wonder how they got saddam hussein’s wedding singer into the country who’s banged up now for snatching old ladies handbags

there is this chute thingy……..

ahhh parachuted behind enemy lines say no more

He had to scuba here through the secret oil pipeline. It is how they tell. If you don’t stink of oil your an illegal immigrant.

Riff-in-Thyme said:

wookiemeister said:

Riff-in-Thyme said:

there is this chute thingy……..

ahhh parachuted behind enemy lines say no more

He had to scuba here through the secret oil pipeline. It is how they tell. If you don’t stink of oil your an illegal immigrant.

you know too much

OCDC said:

Totally unrelated, but um, I might be, er, going on a, umm, holiday soon.

Germany?

Nyet.

OCDC said:

Nyet.

your going to a GLBT rally?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitalis#Toxicity

Depending on the species, the digitalis plant may contain several deadly physiological and chemically related cardiac and steroidal glycosides. Thus, the digitalis plants have earned several, more sinister, names: dead man’s bells and witch’s gloves.

The entire plant is toxic (including the roots and seeds). Mortality is rare, but case reports do exist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case
1994: The Chief Justice of Victoria, John Harber Phillips, studies the evidence and concludes that poisoning was due to digitalis.

wookiemeister said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitalis#Toxicity

Depending on the species, the digitalis plant may contain several deadly physiological and chemically related cardiac and steroidal glycosides. Thus, the digitalis plants have earned several, more sinister, names: dead man’s bells and witch’s gloves.

The entire plant is toxic (including the roots and seeds). Mortality is rare, but case reports do exist

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case
1994: The Chief Justice of Victoria, John Harber Phillips, studies the evidence and concludes that poisoning was due to digitalis.

Good for the Dropsy though…

To solve the problem shown in the OP, write down the first letter of the code. This the first letter of the solution. Then count 13 letters along (ignore the spaces, Q becomes a space) and write down that letter. Continue counting every 13 letters and when you reach the end of the letters loop back and continue on from the beginning again. These are the first few letters of the solution…

AQCOMP….

>>“ASIS used to be and perhaps still is the Australian signals intelligence unit.”

Strewth!!!!!!

Try this instead….

Australian Secret Intelligence Service | Home

www.asis.gov.au/‎

ASIS’s primary function is to obtain and distribute intelligence information about the capabilities, intentions and activities of individuals or organisations outside …
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…..and the answer is…..
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<drum roll="">

“Congratulations, you’ve found and solved every one of the codes we hid around the web.
Submit your details below to enter our free prize draw.”

:)

macx