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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000114/od/eavesdrop_1.html

Friday January 14 10:27 AM ET Electronic Snooping Agency Uses Cryptic Clues LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's electronic snooping agency is using cryptic clues hidden in the internet to attract new recruits.

GCHQ, which eavesdrops on international communications for the government, has placed a coded message on its website at www.gchq.gov.uk/challenge and invited jobseekers to crack the puzzle.

``You don't have to solve the puzzle to apply successfully to join GCHQ but if you include the message in you application form, we would certainly be interested in talking to you,'' GCHQ said.

The five-part coded message was posted before Christmas. It was cracked within 48 hours and since then 14 other people have solved it.

GCHQ said the code was intended to stimulate the curiosity of applicants needed to fill 100 new vacancies at the agency.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 17, 2000

Answers

The url above is 404, but here is a working link.

I can't even find the clues, let alone crack the code. Good luck.

-- semper paratus (still_here_with@my.pals), January 17, 2000.

--cool! here's the link to the CHALLENGE. Hope someone here can crak it!

doomers vs the pollies, ready, set, go!

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 17, 2000.

---goin nutz update--about over 2 hours into this thing, have 4 words, can't figger out fifth word-that is, if ANY of them are the clues! hahahaha

Anyone else doing this thing? Thought some of the masterminz here would like this puzzle. I'm taking a break now, try some more manana, if I drink any more coffee I'm gonna register on TEMPEST..

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 18, 2000.

You go Zoggy!!!!!!! =)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 18, 2000.

Cracked it. It says "All the News. All the Time." :)

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 18, 2000.

WAY TO GO JOHN!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!!!!!

Dee =)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 18, 2000.

cool, John! send me an email, tell me what ya got, the stuff i found was different, but yours sounds more likely. Did you email the site there for confirmation? although I expect something that clear has to be it.

again, too cool!

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 18, 2000.

Sorry, Dee and Zog, That was [I thought] a clear spoof on my part :)!

I note, though, that the Sunday Express "cracked" it, too, to find - surprise! - that it told readers to always get their news from the Sunday Express :)!

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 18, 2000.

That's okay John...we knew that, didn't we Zog? LOL

=)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 18, 2000.

[Here's the SUNDAY EXPRESS 'triumph'...:)]

WEB OF INTRIGUE: The GCHQ base of Britain's code-busters who set a fiendish trap of red herrings on the Internet

I crack the GCHQ code

By William Hartston

THE government code-busters at GCHQ have, we were told last week, incorporated a hidden puzzle within their website in order to attract the right sort of new recruit.

Delve deep into the pages at www.gchq.gov.uk, they challenge would-be code breakers, and find five hidden clues. Put them together in the right way, decode them and you will discover the secret message. Send it in, and they may even give you a job as a code-breaker.

Charles Arthur, the Technology Editor of The Independent, had a bash at cracking the code in Friday's paper and came up - or so he thought - with three of the hidden clues. One, he explained, was concealed in a message in Morse code, another was printed in the same colour as its background. ` The third was embedded invisibly as a "comment" programmed not to show up on the page. Good try, Charles, but I'm afraid you've fallen into their fiendish trap. These are but red herrings, as I discovered when I found the full solution.

The first clue I identified was in some information about The New Landscape: 1992-2000 in a section on GCHQ's history. They refer to "the foreign Secretary" then go on to mention "robin Cook". One lower case letter instead of a capital could be a slip of the typing finger, but getting both the "f" and "r" wrong had to be a couple of clues.

Next came an explanation of her work by Vanessa, a mathematician: "Some of the techniques used in the war, are still effective today," she writes. One simply cannot separate a subject from its verb with a comma in that way. Another clue! Then came a piece on pay referring to "further increases dependant on seniority". That should, of course, be "dependent". And finally, there is a section on Leisure referring to clubs for Chess, Bridge and "Co" (which should clearly be the oriental game of Go).

To sum up: the five clues are a small r, small f, erroneous dependant/dependent, an extra comma, and a "c" that should be a "g". Study these, we are told, and we'll have the answer.

So we begin with an expression indicating the errors, add an exhortation to study, list the mistakes, and finally change a "c" to a "g" as indicated by the erroneous Co for Go. That gives: oops! I study the small "f" and wee "r" DEPENDENT ERRS, AN EXTRA GOMMA.All that remains is to rearrange the letters and we have the final message from GCHQ to the nation: MEMO FOR ALL I.T. DEPARTMENTS: GO AND READ THE NEW SUNDAY EXPRESS.

[ENDS]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 18, 2000.

h-m-m-m-m-m, that's all i gotz to say, h-m-m-m-m-m, gonna look again later tonite, my clues looking better again. One pic did look like an overlay, couldn't decipher that if it was. I think it's just garden variety substitution groups, and if it isn't, I've found some weird coinkydinks. later....

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 18, 2000.

---another update, in case anyone really cares and is still following this. spent an hour on it last night, still zip, stuck at 4 clues, can't find the fifth one, at least I don't think I have it as the fifth is a slang word/vulgarity. Will give it another whack later on when it's quiet. I'm a midnight oil thinker. If anyone is working on this, let me know how you are doing, email is fine, this thread about to go off the page soon.

think when I was 14 I coulda nailed this quick, but to-o-o-o-o many brain cells appeared to have retired! Hoo Haw!

cryptos are big fun, but haven't done any for over 30 years, little rusty here...wheels within wheels wrapped in a puzzle surrounded by an ENIGMA...or whatever that quote is...

hey, fed puzzle palace lurkers, you guys get it yet? same deal with email, I KNOW ya'all are trying it. I'm thinking it's a combo, substitution and object/allusions. Am I warm? And DON'T tell me there's embedded audio in the pics! hahahahaha! what a kicker! gotta look now!

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 19, 2000.

Zog,

I care, and I am following this.

I am impressed with your tenacity!!!!!! Go get 'em tiger.

~Dee =)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 19, 2000.

---well! I found the REAL 5th clue, which means my previous ones are back to being suspect! Duh and HAHAHAHAHAHA! Enough for tonight, I've bookmarked this thread, will add updates as I find more. sheesh, what have I gotten into? If I get the whole thing, I'll email it to those doodz, see if I got it, if so and they reply, will xxx out non pertinent stuff and post the gist. IF and WHEN, that is..... this is your brain ---------

this is your brain on fried eggs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this is your brain on #%^^&&*^ puzzles by british intel *!*!*!*!*!*!*!

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 20, 2000.

...(drums pounding)...and going...and going.... ^-^

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 20, 2000.