El Reg has a story about a crypto-puzzle thingy called Cicada 3301, whereof I was not heretofore aware (I tend not to hear about such things).
Quote:
Perhaps, then, it's just a 4chan prank, but Kenny Paterson, a crypto-professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, believes it's too well organised to be a practical joke:
Um. What resources are actually, required, though?
Remember, creating obscurity is much easier than piercing it. So, the team needs:
- A clever and creative person.
- Web hosting.
- A way of getting posters put on lamp posts in various places around the world.
(Keep in mind that my assessment is based on the story I linked, not the deeper links which presumably give much more detail but would eat my day.)
Anyway, seems like the on-line part of it could be done by one person with a lot of time on his hands and quite modest amounts of money. The lamp-post bit suggests more people, more money, an airline employee, or some social engineering (e.g., mail the posters to on-line acquaintances with a request to post them and report the locations, and use the locations of the ones that do get posted).
[His mind is like a steel trap: full of mice. -- Foghorn Leghorn]
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