Cicada 3301 Puzzle Returns to Mystify People Once Again
Is the answer really out there? After more than a year of absence, the mysterious online puzzle known as Cicada 3301 is back, sending the web's amateur detectives into a frenzy.
Started back in 2012, the cryptic organization continued to baffle thrill seekers and puzzle solvers by releasing a new challenge every year. But last year, it mysteriously stopped, which led many to wonder what happened.
Apart from that, a myriad of copycats have started to appear that made the real group to break their silence and posted a single tweet.
In their official Twitter it read, "Hello, the path lies empty; epiphany seeks the devoted. Liber Primus is the way. Its words are the map, their meaning is the road, and their numbers are the direction." It went on to continue with, "Seek and you will be found. Good Luck." and was simply signed with "3301."
According to Business Insider, the Liber Primus refers to the name of a 60-page book of runes that was at the end at the 2014 version of the Cicada 3301 puzzle. However, the book is still undeciphered up to this day, due to the fact that many puzzle solvers were frustrated by it.
Many of the previous puzzle solvers felt that the Liber Primus was a major anti-climax as the book of runes is very hard to crack. One solver even called the runes as "pseudo bullsh*t" and said that there are too many ways to interpret it.
In a report by Oddity Central, a Swedish computer analyst named Joel Eriksson is just one of the few individuals who managed to crack the first ever Cicada 3301.
Eriksson noted that when he first saw the puzzle back in 2012, he quickly knew that it was a form of digital steganography that is usually used to hide secret or illegal digital files like child pornography or terrorist-related data.
He found a hidden image on the puzzle, which led him to a website that contained an image of a duck that reads, "Woops, just decoys this way. Looks like you can't guess how to get the message out."
At first, Eriksson thought that he has reached a dead end, but quickly found another hidden message on the duck that led to a Reddit thread, which led to a deep web site, Fast Company reported.
Unfortunately, Eriksson did not solve the puzzle in time, as when he made it on the page, the organizers already put a message that they were disappointed that no one solved the puzzle on their own.
Many theorized that the puzzle was some form of recruitment for the NSA, CIA or MI6, but up until now, it remains a mystery who exactly the group of people behind Cicada 3301 is.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com