The coordinates pointed to locations around the globe. The website consisted of a countdown as well as an image of a cicada.When the countdown reached zero, the page was updated with a list of coordinates. The two missing numbers mentioned in the recording proved to be the dimensions of the original image.Īfter multiplying the width and height with 3301 Some naturally dismissed it as an elaborate joke while others perceived its complexity as evidence against it being the work of a mere troll.Before long, rumours began to circulate that this could be the work of some secret society or intelligence agency with the intent of recruiting individuals proficient in cryptography, steganography, and other related fields. The extracted information lead to a subreddit which in turn contained information about a book.Ĭould then be used to uncover a phone number that, when called, played this pre-recorded message.īy the following day, the initial image had been reposted all over the internet.Ī growing community of armchair detectives sought to unravel this elaborate puzzle, but no one was quite sure what to make off it. The string contained a cipher that, once deciphered,Īt first this appeared to be a dead end but using an application known as OutGuess users were able to extract hidden information embedded within the first image. On the 4th of January 2012, a user on 4chan posted this image to the site’s infamous or random board.The anonymous author, who went by the four-digit pseudonym 3301, challenged users to uncover a message hidden within the image.Unknown to best to those who stumbled across it, someone had just set in motion one of the most elaborate scavenger hunts the internet has ever seen.Within minutes of the image being posted someone discovered that by opening the file using a text editor an appended string of readable text could be found.
Those who do have disappeared from the internet. Many first thought Cicada 3301 was an Alternate Reality Game, but still very few known where this rabbit hole leads to. There has been much speculation and theories about Cicada 3301, including that they are recruitment tools for the NSA, MI6, Illuminati, a cult or a hacker group. Cicada 3301 has been called “the most elaborate and mysterious puzzle of the internet age.” The Washington Post ranked it as one of the “top 5 eeriest, unsolved mysteries of the internet.” Six years after the elaborate cryptographic puzzle contest first launched, it still seems that no one except the person who started it know what it even meant-if it meant anything at all.
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