The Internet is full of mysteries despite its relatively young age. Today we are going to talk about our favourite Internet mystery or the elaborate puzzles given by Cicada 3301. Some of them were solved, while others still await this moment.
Many people still wonder what their purpose is and who’s behind them, which, as you can guess, has also created a plethora of fascinating conspiracy theories about them. We’ll discuss these puzzles and the theories surrounding them.
The Beginning
Cicada 3301 is arguably the best-known Internet puzzle that garnered the biggest amount of attention online. The first clue of the puzzle appeared on 4th January 2012. It was an image posted on 4chan that declared the group was looking for talented individuals to welcome to their team.
At first, people thought that someone was trolling them (it was posted on 4chan after all), but then a user used a text editor to view the image and found out it included a code to another image.
The image appeared to be a dead-end until someone used the Outguess program to reveal a hidden message that took users to a subreddit and then to a book that contained a phone number when deciphered. This led to a voicemail prompting users to find two set of numbers.
These numbers were the length of the original pictures, which were then multiplied by 3301 to get the URL of a webpage. The webpage contained coordinates around the world with a picture containing a QR code in each location.
That’s when everyone realised these guys were the real deal and perhaps it was an intelligence agency or a big corporation that was looking for new recruits who were talented cryptographers.
The code from the prints led to a poem that when deciphered led to a book that contained another website. However, only the first few people to find the website were let in under the pretext that Cicada 3301 wanted leaders, not followers. The organisers warned against cooperation if one wanted to reach the final stage.
It’s believed some players obeyed and did reach it, but we don’t know that. A month later, Cicada 3301 announced they found the right people.
The Middle
Many fake tests were posted after, but a year later, the team behind Cicada 3301 (identified by a unique code) posted an image similar to the original one that had the same goal of searching for intelligent individuals.
Using Outguess again, the image was found to contain a message, which led to a book and the book contained a link. Upon clicking on it, players could hear a musical recording titled “The Instar Emergence”. Then, the search led to a Twitter account and consequently an image that displayed a code where numbers corresponded to Latin letters, as well as runes.
Just like the first Cicada puzzle, the search ultimately took players outside, at eight specified locations, where they looked for printed images that displayed yet another code. Then yet again, the search concluded and the select few supposedly communicated with the Cicada team.
The End?
The cycle continued in 2014 when Cicada 3301 posted another black-on-white image. This time it didn’t mention a search for intelligent individuals, but promised the path to Enlightenment. Internet users were even more puzzled this time. They used Outguess yet again, which led to a code and then a book that contained a link – the usual saga.
However, many soon noticed that this puzzle was different as it seemed to revolve around a book called Liber Primus or “the first book”. The book in question was written by the Cicada team and it was written in runes, which explains the curious runic code that was found on Twitter during the second puzzle.
The code proved valuable and the book could be translated. The writings were vague and highly philosophical, which led people to believe that it was the manifesto of the team behind Cicada 3301. Some users were appalled by the book, which now led them to believe that Cicada wasn’t a recruitment tool for a highly-paid job, but a cult.
Returning to the deciphering of the book, users decoded some parts to reveal messages asking them to find a specific website that still hasn’t been found (or at least not shared publicly). Another code led to a curious recording titled “Interconnectedness”.
Although the Twitter code shared in the second puzzle allowed users to begin decoding the runic book, only 19 out of its 74 pages were successfully decoded as they contained additional layers of encryption. One could say for certain that Liber Primus had not yet been decoded, because a year later Cicada 3301 stated they were still waiting.
There are multiple stories online about the supposed winners of the first and second puzzles. One poster alleged Cicada 3301 sent them an email that read that they were a decentralised international organisation that sought to defend the right of privacy and the flow of information. This account could not be proven.
There have also been people who’ve given interviews saying that once they won, Cicada 3301 contacted them, but then nothing came out of that. Others allude that Cicada 3301 creates software that protects the user’s privacy in a not-so-private 21st century.
Whoever is behind it and whatever the answer is to the third puzzle, we sure had a lot of fun following the leads.