GCHQ’s Security Code: Can You Crack It?

Intelligence organisation GCHQ has unveiled a security code-breaking competition aimed at discovering a new talent pool.

Placed online, the competition involved a dark grid filled with alpha-numeric content and, somewhere, a code.

Already shared on various social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, the page - at www.canyoucrackit.co.uk, - contains very little other information other than a timer, a box in which to type the solution, a ‘submit' button and the legend ‘The Challenge Continues.'

GCHQ Security Page

While the agency isn't directly referenced on the GCHQ security code page at all, correct answers link through to its website and, potentially, to a future job working within advanced national security.

With roots that go back to 1919, GCHQ - the Government Communications Headquarters - is tasked with supplying the UK armed forces and the UK government with SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) data. While headquartered in Cheltenham, in south west England, it also has various communications facilities positioned in other parts of the UK and overseas.

At the end of October 2011, a report from GCHQ highlighted the number of UK cyber attacks then being reported. "Such intellectual property theft doesn't just cost the companies concerned; it represents an attack on the UK's continued economic wellbeing", director Iain Lobban said, at the time.

Can You Crack It?

GCHQ's Can You Crack It? campaign represents one attempt to recruit the next generation of security officials, with the mathematical knowledge needed to take cyber crime prevention to the next level.

"Code cracking skills are vital to secure the very best talent and to support the GCHQ mission in its fight against cyber threats," a GCHQ representative explained. "Our target audience is not typically attracted to traditional advertising methods and may be unaware that we are recruiting for these kinds of roles.

"Traditionally, cyber specialists enter the organisation as graduates. However, with the threats to information and computer technology constantly evolving, it is essential that GCHQ allows candidates who may be self taught, but have a keen interest in code breaking and ethical hacking, to enter the recruitment route too."

Image Crown Copyright. Used with permission, Director GCHQ