Summary
Highlights
On January 4, 2012, a user on 4chan, under the pseudonym 3301, posted an image challenging users to find a hidden message. This initiated an elaborate internet scavenger hunt. The first steps involved extracting hidden text from the image using a text editor, leading to a cipher. This was followed by using the OutGuess application to reveal more embedded information, directing participants to a subreddit and then to a book. This book, with a code, unveiled a phone number that played a prerecorded message. The message contained clues that led to a website with a countdown and an image of a cicada. When the countdown ended, a list of global coordinates was revealed, instructing participants to travel to physical locations in 14 locations across 5 countries to find posters with QR codes. These codes linked to another image, a riddle, a book, and finally, a website. Only a select group of first arrivals to this website were accepted into the final stage of the puzzle, with Cicada stating, "We want the best, not the followers." The puzzle concluded with Cicada announcing they had found the "highly intelligent individuals" they sought.
One year and a day after the first, Cicada 3301 released a new image with a valid PGP signature, confirming its authenticity. The second puzzle followed a similar pattern: an image with an enclosed message, leading to a book, which produced a link, and so on. A recording titled "The Instar Emergence" was uncovered, and a cryptic Twitter account led to an image featuring a runic alphabet. This puzzle also extended into the physical world with 8 locations in 4 different countries. Like the first, it led to a private final stage for a select few, but the second puzzle ended without an official announcement from Cicada, leaving participants without a clear conclusion.
The third puzzle began in early 2014, largely mirroring the previous structures, but it centered around a strange book titled "Liber Primus" (First Book), apparently authored by Cicada. The runic alphabet discovered in 2013 was key, as the book was mainly written in runes. The translated pages contained cryptic philosophical and ideological ideas, functioning as a manifesto, and were compared to writings of a cult. The book also included various clues, such as a directive to find a website on the deep web (which remains undiscovered) and another website containing a recording called "Interconnectedness." A significant portion of Liber Primus, however, remains untranslated due to layers of encryption, with only 19 of 74 runic pages translated. In 2016, Cicada encouraged a re-examination of the book, implying its completion was necessary for further puzzles. Progress has been minimal since.
Early theories suggested Cicada 3301 was an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) for commercial promotion, but the lack of commercialization disproved this. Leaked information from finalists of the first puzzle suggests Cicada is an international group believing in privacy as an inalienable right, aiming to recruit like-minded individuals to develop privacy-conscious solutions. Similar recruitment techniques have been used by intelligence agencies like GCHQ and Google. Marcus Wanner, an alleged winner of the first puzzle, stated that finalists were invited to a Dark Web forum to develop software aligned with Cicada's ideology of security, privacy, and anti-censorship. However, recruits lost interest, and the forum eventually closed. Nox Populi, an alleged winner of the second puzzle, believes Cicada could be a remnant of the cypherpunk movement. While these accounts cannot be fully verified, they provide a compelling argument that Cicada 3301 is a group of anonymous developers recruiting talented individuals through cryptographic puzzles to create privacy-focused applications.
The video argues that the elaborate nature, including physical posters across the globe, doesn't necessarily indicate a vast international organization. A single individual or a small group with disposable income could create the illusion of such a network, possibly by traveling to locations or hiring people to place posters. The most plausible explanation remains a loose-knit group of privacy-minded hobby-cryptographers. Cicada's last public statement in April 2017 merely warned against disinformation, leaving the status of the third puzzle and the possibility of future puzzles shrouded in mystery.