GCHQ: Can you find it?

[JJonas]

Its "Can you find it?"

 

I have used the Internet to find the answers

 

Code breaking skills 0:1 Google search engine skills

[Garacesh]

Code breaking skills 0:1 Google search engine skills

90% of IT is synonymous with 'Google'. Your method checks out.

[Garunas]

Firstly does anybody have a link to Stage 4?

 

In Stage 2 your given an RSA Private Key, which I believe you have to use to decrypt the message in Stage 3. But you need a public Key to do this and I don't know how to get it. Anybody know anything about the RSA algorithm lol?

[Garunas]

Haha i guess I was too late and Google Search beat me to it!

[JJonas]

It's the much more likely scenario. All it takes is ~20 people to post to public/pseudo-public forums and we'll see easily 10 times that many enter with no effort at all.

 

Can we move this to a members only forum to increase Edugeek members chances of winning/having the front door kicked in at 4 in the morning

[Garacesh]

Can we move this to a members only forum to increase Edugeek members chances of winning/having the front door kicked in at 4 in the morning

Concurred. Looks like there's 2 people already that have joined here specifically for this thread (@Garanus and @darkgoth) .. Probably best to nip it in the bud before it bears any fruit.

 

Edit: Sod it. Everyone else is fraudulently entering. I might as well get in on this, too xD

Edited September 12, 2013 by Garacesh

[zag]

I already turned down a job with GCHQ once!

 

I made it though a selection weekend for IT support after I graduated and they offered me a job.

 

Just a shame at the time the pay was so low and it took 6 months to do the required checks.

Edited September 12, 2013 by zag

[thecodex]

There's an idea of how you'd start to solve the code here - GCHQ Can you find it? Solution | GCHQ Answer to AWVLI.

 

It occurs to me that it's entirely possible that GCHQ would use some false positives, where you enter an answer and it turns green. Unless someone explains how they arrived at the answer and you can replicate it, I think you should be wary!

[RabbieBurns]

what was the 5th answer?

[CAM]

Concurred. Looks like there's 2 people already that have joined here specifically for this thread (@Garanus and @darkgoth) .. Probably best to nip it in the bud before it bears any fruit.

 

Edit: Sod it. Everyone else is fraudulently entering. I might as well get in on this, too xD

 

That's not a bad thing. The entire stunt is merely to raise GCHQ's recruitment profile in the public eye by making us talk about it, solving the code won't be automatic entry to the interview queue.

[Garacesh]

There's an idea of how you'd start to solve the code here - GCHQ Can you find it? Solution | GCHQ Answer to AWVLI.

 

It occurs to me that it's entirely possible that GCHQ would use some false positives, where you enter an answer and it turns green. Unless someone explains how they arrived at the answer and you can replicate it, I think you should be wary!

Blocked because it has discussions about filtering xD I'll check when I get home

And yes, I'd certainly imagine those who get an interview will be re-tested personally

[JJonas]

here you go

 

GCHQ Can you find it - Solution

 

The GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters in the UK) has posted a code to solve on the "Can you find it?" website - https://canyoufindit.co.uk/ to let you win a prize or even join them, but what is the answer?

 

The code is:

 

AWVLI QIQVT QOSQO ELGCV IIQWD LCUQE EOENN WWOAO

LTDNU QTGAW TSMDO QTLAO QSDCH PQQIQ DQQTQ OOTUD

BNIQH BHHTD UTEET FDUEA UMORE SQEQE MLTME TIREC

LICAI QATUN QRALT ENEIN RKG

 

You might also be interested in the code for Challenge Three or the text version.

 

To find the answer you have to visit different pages on the web and solve the code, just like Alan Turing did at Bletchley Park, when he invented the Colossus computer that the Nazis were using to send secured messages to one another. This page focuses on the code itself, rather than the pages on the web. The code is the enigma of the year!

 

Codes like this might have some false answers that still appear green when you enter them, therefore in order to be sure you've got the right answer, you should understand how the answer was arrived at. This page explains the kind of process you'd follow.

 

Answering the GCHQ Code starting AWVLI ...

 

The first thing you probably did is to try some of the obvious things ... reading the whole code backwards, taking the first letter of each word, etc. You probably noticed that there are an excessive number of Q's in the GCHQ code to, which isn't natural in English, particularly as there's not an excessive amount of U's. This suggests one of three things:

 

It's a substitution cipher, where letters are swapped with different letters to form words.

The Q's should be deleted at some point.

The Q's are actually spaces, rather than letters

If we look at the frequency of letters (the information is presented twice, firstly in alphabetical order, then in terms of the most frequent letter), we have the following pattern:

 

 

 

 

 

Frequency Letter Frequency Letter

8 A 20 Q

2 B 14 E

5 C 14 T

8 D 10 I

14 E 10 O

1 F 8 A

3 G 8 D

4 H 8 L

10 I 7 N

0 J 7 U

1 K 5 C

8 L 5 W

4 M 4 H

7 N 4 M

10 O 4 R

1 P 4 S

20 Q 3 G

4 R 3 V

4 S 2 B

14 T 1 F

7 U 1 K

3 V 1 P

5 W 0 J

0 X 0 X

0 Y 0 Y

0 Z 0 Z

Except for the Q, this is a very normal range, as E and T are the letters used the most often in the English language and J, X, Y and Z are all used rarely. This suggests that it's much more likely that in order to solve the code, you have to rearrange the letters, rather than substitute them for alternative letters.

 

There are previous examples of puzzles from GCHQ here - Break Some Code Puzzle 1: Getting started and while none of them start "AWVLI QIQVT QOSQO ..." (that would be too easy!) it seems likely that a similar pattern will be used, as that will reward people who have done some research on the QCHQ website.

 

So what's the answer to the code? Well ... I'm still working on it! However some other things I spotted:

 

If you remove the Q's then there's an anagram of 'To Solve' early on in the code. This may suggest a pattern for how the other letters are scrambled (unfortunately none I could apply effectively)

AWVLI IVT OSO ELGCV IIWD LCUE EOENN WWOAO

LTDNU TGAW TSMDO TLAO SDCH PI DT OOTUD

BNIH BHHTD UTEET FDUEA UMORE SEE MLTME TIREC

LICAI ATUN RALT ENEIN RKG

 

 

Removing the Q's from UMORE SQEQE gives "U MORE SEE"

 

The prizes are:

100 x Raspberry Pi and

5 x Google Nexus 7

I wondered if the number pi (3.14159265359...) perhaps to 100 decimal places is part of what you need to solve the code?

If you're determined to solve the QCHQ "Can you find it" Code, then I hope this gives you some pointers. It may be that you need a computer to generate all the random possibilities of different orders. It may also be that ALL my above thoughts are completely wrong, so beware of red herrings! I'm just guessing and using other codes.

[thecodex]

Hi JJonas,

 

Err, that looks like a direct copy from GCHQ Can you find it? Solution | GCHQ Answer to AWVLI !!

 

Seemed only fair to mention it !

[thecodex]

The 5th answer is not rescued, but that's an easy code to crack!! Edited September 13, 2013 by thecodex
Remove the answer

[JJonas]

Dont post the answers

 

Can we get this thread moved to a private room?

 

BTRD?

Edited September 13, 2013 by JJonas

[Garacesh]

Hi JJonas,

 

Err, that looks like a direct copy from GCHQ Can you find it? Solution | GCHQ Answer to AWVLI !!

 

Seemed only fair to mention it !

It is. The page is blocked here, so JJonas was quoting it for me. We do a lot of that.

[JJonas]

Hi JJonas,

 

Err, that looks like a direct copy from GCHQ Can you find it? Solution | GCHQ Answer to AWVLI !!

 

Seemed only fair to mention it !

 

tells you how to solve it but not the answer itself

[thecodex]

Hi, sos, didn't know that rule!

 

I've just edited my post to give an easy clue to the answer, is that OK?