The Cicada 3301 Mystery - Spy Recruitment or Aliens?

Starting on January 4, 2012, a web puzzle first appeared
on the Internet indicating it wanted to find highly
intelligent individuals for their own very secretive
purposes. While never AS OF YET publicly solved,
a few anonymous individuals have stated they have
been recruited and know the secrets left behind.

Here on ATS we shall discuss WHO IS Cicada 3301
and WHAT is their purpose. I have a few links
on the background of Cicada 3301 here:

More information on Cicada 3301:
en.wikipedia.org...

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ORIGINAL MESSAGE QUOTE:

Hello. We are looking for highly intelligent individuals.
To find them, we have devised a test. There is a message
hidden in the image. Find it, and it will lead you on the
road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few
who will make it all the way through. Good luck.

3301

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Cicada 3301

Link to Internet image served on a Darknet:
www.tumblr.com...

Fast Company Webzine Article on 3301:
www.fastcompany.com...


MY TAKE:
The name Cicada in itself holds ONE key to me:

CIC = Combat Information Centre (US Navy Acronym)

ADA = A Military Programming Language
sort of like PASCAL or Oberon
with multiple government users.


3301 is ALSO an ERROR CODE for MANY software products
that seem to all reference nearly the same thing as
one of the following:

a) 3301 Lotus Notes - Full Full Text memory allocation error

b) Error ID 3301 — Data Protection Manager

c) Erro 3301: Sybase Database Error: has various sub-errors

d) SQL Error 3301 is associated with transaction log files of SQL Server database.

e) DRM Error 3301 = This error is returned when an authenticate call is made
with invalid credentials (i.e. bad username or password).

Notice that all the error codes have
to do with databases and data protection?

The 3301 numerals also reference the
Ternary base-3 numeral system which
has a specific social connotation which
I immediately get but won't reveal here!

en.wikipedia.org...

Many have speculated that it is a recruitment
tool for the NSA, CIA, MI6, or a cyber
mercenary group.

If you research the logos, words and other information
using SOCIAL CONTEXT CONNOTATIONS I found these links:

Cicada Security:
cicadasecurity.com...

“The Cicada technology addresses real capability gaps,
not only in federal civil agencies but also across the
Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community.”

Dr. Thomas A. Cellucci, Chief Commercialization Office U.S. Department of Homeland Security (Ret.)

The Cicada technology addresses real capability gaps,
not only in federal ... dedicated management processor
to pervasively monitor and analyze trigger data.

--

Logo of UAV Dragonfly:
www.rediff.com...

US Air Force Micro Air Vehicles lab
at Wright Patterson Air Force Base
Micro Air Vehicles
Integration & Application Research Institute

--

All the social contexts are related to links
within or ASSOCIATED with DATA STORAGE AND
IT SECURITY DURING DATA TRANSMISSION!

That means a few things:

a) The people doing this are SMART!

b) The context of using in later stages
a personality test indicates recruitment
for a COMMON SOCIAL linkage. All applicants
must have nearly the same social beliefs or
associations.

c) Unfortunately for THEM! some of
the questions were lifted right from MMPI2
(Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)
So I now know that at least ONE person behind
this has high-level Psychology/Psychiatry training.

d) Its a possible recruitment tool
for a U.S. or international
intelligence agency. CIA/NSA/DIA/MI6, etc

e) It's a recruitment tool for a bunch of
programmers who are working on breathroughs
recently found within a Grand Challenge Computing
Project see link:
www.grids.ac.uk...

f) It was concosted by a business entity who is interested in
information security and data storage technology and systems.

g) It was concocted by Aliens who want only CERTAIN
people to get through the clues for whatever end-purpose
is required by said aliens!

and finally
h) Just to muddy the waters I'll give you
this clue which is probably unrelated.....

The Cicada Prophecy
By J. R. McLeay

about Ending Aging -- aka Immortality!


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SO WHAT'S YOUR OPINION
on what this 3301 mystery is all about?

WHO IS CICADA 3301!

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You know how to reach me!

a reply to: StargateSG7

On a coin flip, aliens.

So a highly secretive organization that wants to remain anonymous and hidden told everyone who they were in the first clue.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
So a highly secretive organization that wants to remain anonymous and hidden told everyone who they were in the first clue.

...

Yup! Happens all the time...ESPECIALLY
nowadays with most Sigint/Humint types
in command being Gen-Xers and Early
Millennials who keep imitating what they
saw on TV or on their Nintendos
...ABSOLUTELY NO OpSec brains at all !!!
They don't even REALIZE the subtle but
Highly identifiable cultural references
they are making!

In this case it's actually TWO agencies battling it out...ONI my guess for the first one and a civilian
Agency either working for a major contractor
Or an Anonymous-like group trying to belittle
The original purveyor of this stunt. I say that
Because certain display and communication
Styles had changed between puzzles and
Certain public communications! It indicated
Two separate groups or "teams" at work!

a reply to: StargateSG7

From my "Grapevine" contacts I keep
Hearing about an underground group
Trying to build a version of a web browser
With a combined TOR-like anonymizer,
Advanced steganographic data embedding
And encryption, built-in peer to peer
communications and DNS Server-Independent
Web search and routing. (i.e. Darknet search
And Darknet routing Support built-in) and
Built-in Crypto Currency support.

I can't tell if it's an intelligence agency project
Or a group of independent programmers. I just
Know MANY in the group are high level math
Experts, at least one psychologist and one
Or two former Navy personnel in my opinion!

Aliens. Definitely aliens.

Very interesting.
I think I remember reading about this before. Not too sure though.

Anyway, there is no shortage of forums and groups out there still on the trail.
I just wish that I had some knowledge in technology so that I could play too.

uncovering-cicada.wikia.com...


I was supposed to go underground for a bit. But now that you brought this to my attention...I don't think there will be much actual work done today.

You don't think you muddied the waters with g.)?

And one more thing...

The number 3301

Takes its parts

33 +1 = 34

Or
3 + 30 + 1 = 34

Or

3 + 3 + 1 = 7

Or

( 3 - 3 ) + 1 = 1

Or

3 x 3 + 1 = 10

34 and 7 and the others are important numbers!

Possibly an ansi/ascii code or a unicode
character number Or a reference to a page
number or part Of a GPS coordinate?

And one more thing...

The number 3301

Takes its parts

33 +1 = 34

Or
3 + 30 + 1 = 34

Or

3 + 3 + 1 = 7

Or

( 3 - 3 ) + 1 = 1

Or

3 x 3 + 1 = 10

34 and 7 and the others are important numbers!

Possibly an ansi/ascii code or a unicode
character number Or a reference to a page
number or part Of a GPS coordinate?

a reply to: StargateSG7

Have you tried punching in variants of the possible coordinates into Google earth?

originally posted by: Macenroe82
a reply to: StargateSG7

Have you tried punching in variants of the possible coordinates into Google earth?

Yup! NOthing of any major consequence
it actually has to do with Base-3 numerology than anything else.

But I didn't NEED to do any GPS query anyways, my HumInt/SigInt contacts
are quite adamant that it's TWO groups vying for technical resources.
One a U.S./UK cooperative, if not collaborative, intelligence apparatus
who want more math and statistics experts and the OTHER group who
are a world-wide group of Secret Browser/DarkNet Systems developers.

On the second group I have no other information on whether they
are altruistic, criminal or US/UK/foreign intelligence agencies.

---

For the US/UK Intelligence systems, they want cryptographers,
statisticians, math majors and TCP/IP/UDP and Stack level/Driver level
programmers who really KNOW their stuff. ESPECIALLY with Network Chips,
RFID, Cell and Wifi Wireless, Routing, DNS, PIC, Industrial Microcontrollers
that can be exploited remotely.

The DarkNet/Secret Browser group has me intrigued since it's behaviour
and methodology seems to be the BREAKAWAY TYPE....That means if it
was State-level sponsorship, the group is acting as a Tiger-Team or
Rogue Group within a larger structure...and that smells like CIA to me!
They want to disrupt and spy on China/Russia/Iran/North Korea/
Other Authoritarian governments around the world and one way
to do that is seed the underground with secretive but uniquely
taggable DarkNet software!

If it's an Altrustic Group it seems they want Anonymization and
a TOR-Browser successor software for Privacy enhancement.

I'm beginning to doubt it's a criminal organization
or Russian/Chinese hackers/agents since it's too
much effort put in to the whole puzzle thing.

They'd rather BRIBE or pull a Double-D enticement
on prospective programmers....P.S. Why do I NEVER
get sent the Double-D enticements? I always get the
phone taps and data vacuums, when I REALLY would
rather have the Double-D and Benjamin Enticements!

Lol i hear that.
But you are right, this is was to much work for it to some basement dwellers. This has the symptoms of the biggest criminal organization in the world...government.

Ive been cracking my brain for the majority of the day on this. Im hitting the sheets and calling it a night. But ill be back at it in the morning.

I suspect this is from our friends in the sceret space program. These people are recruiting these smart people to at a later date"beam them up" to the orbiting ships.

originally posted by: yuppa
I suspect this is from our friends in the sceret space program. These people are recruiting these smart people to at a later date"beam them up" to the orbiting ships.

Yuppa, I'm interested into whom you think these people are? And why it is you shouldn't look them up?

You mentioned a wiki page for the people in your link on your thread titled "who is cicada 3301", how bad can it be looking at a wiki page?