Monthly Archives: November 2014

Inside The Cicada 3301 Cabal

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This story contains interviews with Tekknolagi, the student who solved the Cicada 3301 puzzle.

In January I wrote a story about the one person who is known to have made it further down the Cicada 3301 rabbit hole than anyone elseand my inbox has never been the same since.

For those that dont know, Cicada 3301 is a mysterious Internet puzzle that appears online every January. It consists of a highly complex series of riddles and enigmas that stretch from the digital world out into the real world. To solve these riddles you need to have expert skills in a varying range of disciplines including steganography, cryptography, and ancient Mayan numerology, as well as detailed understandings of 18th century European literature and even cyberpunk speculative fiction. And that was just for last years puzzle.

Thousands of cybersleuths try to solve Cicada each January (there have been three annual puzzles since 2012) but none are known to have solved it completely. And in this case, its not the journey that matters. The makers of Cicada promise "enlightenment" to those who can make it to the end. But whats more baffling than each riddle, or what "enlightenment" awaits those who solve them all, are the people behind Cicada.

No one knows if Cicada is a single person or a group of individuals, though evidence from the puzzle points to Cicada being more than one brilliant individual. The sheer scale of the riddles transcends cyberspace and requires participants to call dummy phone numbers set up in the real world and travel to up to 14 different countries to find QR codes that have been physically taped to telephone poles. This suggests Cicada is indeed a global network of individualsa cabal no one knows anything about.

And its this "unknown cabal" hypothesis that gets peoples minds racing as much as the Cicada 3301 puzzle itself. If Cicada is a group, how many members there are? Where they are based? What are their ultimate motives?

Which brings me back to my inbox...

Since writing my original story about Joel Eriksson, a cryptosecurity researcher from Sweden who was, until now, the only known person to make it further than any other in solving the Cicada 3301 puzzle, I get a few emails each week from people alleging they have information on who Cicada are.

Some emails are obviously fake. Theyre from fantasists that want to pretend they hold the hidden knowledge everyone desires. Some emails are downright strange, like the email I received a few weeks ago from a person who said he worked "for a component of the Intelligence Community of a 5-eyes country" and that this intelligence agency had reason to believe Cicada "may be the same group that was behind the 2007 cyberattacks in the Baltics." Then there are the emails that say Cicada are aliens, terrorists, Barack Obama.

But every once in a while Ill get an email that has the air of believability about it. These emails give me enough of a kick to look into not only the claims they make, but to investigate the person whos made them.

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Inside The Cicada 3301 Cabal

Guardian’s Luke Harding wins prestigious James Cameron prize

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Luke Harding. The prize's chair of judges says it recognises a journalist who writes in the Cameron spirit 'original, eloquent, iconoclasic rebellious.' Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian

The Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding has won the prestigious James Cameron prize for 2014 for his work on Russia, Ukraine, Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks.

The honour is given in memory of the celebrated foreign correspondent and author James Cameron, who died in 1985.

George Brock, professor of journalism at City University, London, and chair of the judges, said the award recognised the work of a journalist who writes and thinks in the James Cameron spirit that is to say original, eloquent, iconoclastic, perhaps somewhat rebellious and wide-ranging.

He added: We looked for someone who brought a touch of incisive wisdom to bear on a variety of subjects. And we found one: this years winner has written at a variety of lengths up to and including books on subjects from WikiLeaks to the dismemberment of Ukraine and the surveillance revelations of Edward Snowden.

Harding was the Guardians Moscow bureau chief from 2007 until 2011, when the Kremlin expelled him from the country in the first case of its kind since the cold war. He has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, eastern Ukraine and other war zones.

He is the author of several non-fiction books including Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia; WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assanges War on Secrecy; and The Snowden Files,an account of the Edward Snowden revelations published in February.

The award was announced in central London shortly before an annual memorial lecture, delivered this year by Christine Ockrent, one of Frances best-known journalists, on the professions new risks and new rewards.

Harding is the latest in a number of Guardian and Observer writers to be recognised by the Cameron Trust. These include Gary Younge, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, David Hirst, Martin Woollacott, Ed Vulliamy, Jonathan Steele, Maggie OKane, Suzanne Goldenberg, Neal Ascherson and Chris McGreal.

Other recipients have included Lyse Doucet, Michael Buerk, John Simpson, Robert Fisk, Charles Wheeler, Bridget Kendall, George Alagiah, Fergal Keane and Ann Leslie.

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Guardian’s Luke Harding wins prestigious James Cameron prize

Hacker claims he stole from Wikileaks

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Reuters

Former associate of Julian Assange, Sigurdur Thordarsson pleads guilty to embezzling from WikiLeaks after turning informant to the FBI.

An Icelandic computer hacker and former associate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange unexpectedly pleaded guilty on Wednesday to embezzling 30 million Icelandic crowns (NZ$308,826) from the organisation.

Sigurdur Thordarsson's courtroom plea is the latest twist in the saga of Wikileaks, which released thousands of secret US embassy cables in 2010 and 2011, deeply embarrassing Washington.

Known as 'Siggi the Hacker', Thordarsson has previously said that he turned an informant for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2011, a year before Assange fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault accusations that he has denied.

In the run up to his Iceland trial, Thordarsson rejected charges that he stole the proceeds of the sales of Wikileaks-branded items, and his U-turn on Wednesday was a surprise.

"After going over the charges thoroughly and speaking with my client, he has decided to plead guilty to all charges," Thordarsson's lawyer, Vilhjalmur Vilhjalmsson, told the court.

The lawyer would not make any comment after the court session, including why Thordarsson had changed his mind.

No date was set for sentencing in the case.

Thordarsson posted a long description of his ties to Wikileaks including photos of him with Assange, his dialogue with the FBI and his defence against the fraud charges, on an Icelandic news website in June 2013.

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Hacker claims he stole from Wikileaks

Julian Assange makes balcony appearance with Noam Chomsky

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Rare appearance: Julian Assange with Noam Chomsky on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Photo: AP

London: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made a rare public appearance on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to greet his latest visitor.

Noam Chomsky, the US philosopher and activist, paid a brief visit to the embassy, joining Mr Assange to look out at the continued police presence.

The embassy has been guarded for 24 hours a day since the Australian arrived to seek asylum over two years ago.

He will be arrested if he leaves the building, where he sought refuge to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over sex-related allegations.

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Mr Assange fears he will be transferred to the United States if he travels to Sweden and be quizzed about the activities of WikiLeaks.

PA

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Julian Assange makes balcony appearance with Noam Chomsky

Edward Snowden leaks cost lives, say experts as extremists ‘changed their tactics’

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Former admiral said terrorists had learned from Snowden's revelations He says people are dying as a result of more sophisticated data encryption Called for reintroduction of bill dubbed 'snooper's charter' by opponents

By Ian Drury

Published: 18:24 EST, 25 November 2014 | Updated: 19:48 EST, 25 November 2014

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Lives are being lost to terrorists because Edward Snowden hampered security service operations, according to terror experts.

Lord West, a former admiral who served as UK security minister until 2010, warned that extremists changed their tactics after the US fugitive leaked details of intelligence agency operations with fatal results.

Raymond Kelly, a former New York Police Department commissioner, also said that leaks from Snowden had caused huge damage.

People that I know, certainly in the US government, say that this is the worst leak that they are aware of, he said. The damage is significant and ongoing and you can see it has also damaged relations between the US and other countries.

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Edward Snowden leaks cost lives, say experts as extremists 'changed their tactics'

United Nations human rights committee resolves to protect privacy

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The text notes metadata can give an insight into personal behaviour. Photograph: Jon Feingersh/Jon Feingersh/Blend Images/Corbis

A landmark resolution demanding privacy protection in the digital age and urging governments to offer redress to citizens targeted by mass surveillance has been approved by the UN general assemblys human rights committee.

The resolution, which was adopted in the face of attempts by the US and others to water it down and which comes at a time when the UK government is calling for increased surveillance powers, had been put forward by Brazil and Germany in the wake of revelations by US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden about large-scale US surveillance.

However, diplomats reported that a reference to surveillance using metadata information generated through the use of technology as an intrusive act was removed in order to appease the US and its British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand allies in the so-called Five Eyes surveillance alliance.

Nevertheless, the text does still contain a precedent-setting mention of metadata, warning that certain types of metadata, when aggregated, can reveal personal information and give an insight into an individuals behaviour, social relationships, private preferences and identity.

It also emphasises the role of the private sector in digital surveillance, saying, business enterprises have a responsibility to respect human rights.

While not naming any in particular, it calls on states to review their procedures, practices and legislation regarding the surveillance of communications, their interception and the collection of personal data, including mass surveillance, with a view to upholding the right to privacy under international human rights law.

Although are non-binding, such resolutions carry significant moral and political weight if they are supported by enough states.

The resolution was approved by the 193-member committee as a follow-up to a similar text adopted last year after Snowden, a former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, exposed a major spying programme by the agency.

Germanys ambassador meanwhile called for the UN to create a special investigator post on the issue, warning that without necessary checks, we risk turning into Orwellian states where every step by every citizen is monitored.

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United Nations human rights committee resolves to protect privacy