What is Cicada 3301? It is actually a name given to an enigmatic organization that posts sets of complex puzzles every year to recruit capable cryptanalysts from the public. (Cicadas are insects as it appears on the above image)

The first of its puzzles were posted on January 5, 2012 and ran for approximately one month. Cicada 3301 has been classified as ‘The Internet’s Most Baffling Mystery’. There are only quite a handful of people known to have solved the various stages of these puzzles.
Those who won have been recruited but the aftermath still remains unknown.

The first puzzle when appeared online on January 5, 2012, two subsequent rounds were released on the same day of the following years. During the first year, Cicada 3301 started with a picture on 4Chan, along with the message: “Hello. We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, we have devised a test. There is a message hidden in this image. Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few that will make it all the way through.” The message was simply signed 3301.

Also, the rumors surrounding e-mails which were sent to individuals who had completed the puzzle were given personality assessment. After this stage, participants were recruited. But still, these are just speculations.

The only person who has come into the limelight for solving every stage is ‘Swedish Computer Analyst’ – Joel Eriksson. He is one of the very few people who cracked the puzzle but couldn’t figure what was the end of it.

The fact that these puzzles at a later stage require the participants to visit other countries to retrieve next clue, suggests that ‘Cicada 3301’ is large and highly funded organization rather than simply being ‘biggest elaborate hoax’. (Referencing Voynich Manuscript)

The puzzles began to mutate in different directions, hexadecimal values, prime-numbers, in all these, pictures of cicada insect became a common motif. “I knew cicadas only emerge every prime number of years – 13 or 17 – to avoid synchronizing with the life cycles of their predators,” Joel Erikson said. “It was all starting to fit together.”

Authorities from the Los Andes Province of Chile claim that Cicada 3301 is a “hacker group” and engaged in illegal activities. Cicada 3301 responded to this claim by issuing a PGP-signed statement denying any involvement in illegal activity.

These puzzles focus heavily on data security, cryptography and stenography. Over the course of its existence many have speculated that it is a recruitment tool for the NSA, CIA, MI6 or simply a ‘Secret Society’ which is working on improving cryptography, privacy and anonymity.

Till today, no company or individual has taken credit or tried to monetize. Some claim that is run by a bank working on cryptocurrency.

Cicada 3301 poster with QR code discovered in Warsaw, Poland.

Whether ‘Cicada 3301’ is ‘The Internet’s Most Secret Organization’ or the biggest elaborate hoax, is unknown. Just like Voynich Manuscript. But still, it baffles me.

To know more about ‘Cicada 3301’, have a look at this…

http://ow.ly/JClDs

– Abhishek Poddar

– PoddarProject