November 2013 media exposure

In November 25th and 26th, 2013, lots of big media houses published articles about Cicada 3301. This sparked a lot of interest across internet communities. We are not sure what caused publishing these articles, but it caught a lot of attention from many different intelligence/cryptography/conspiracy/hacker/puzzle communities all over the web.

First article appears to be The Telegtaph (telegraph.co.uk) one.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/10468112/The-internet-mystery-that-has-the-world-baffled.html

which looks like ripoff of older MentalFLoss article:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31932/chasing-cicada-exploring-darkest-corridors-internet

Joel Eriksson is real though: https://twitter.com/OwariDa, editor of well known http://www.clevcode.org/cicada-3301/

You can find him in #33012013 on freenode under nick OariDa

This is his story about how he became involved in Chris Bells article.

OwariDa    well, i see no reason to keep it a secret. chris bell from the daily telegraph contacted me, since he was working on a story about cicada 3301. and wanted to ask some questions to someone who had participated.
OwariDa    there's not much more to it than that.
counterh_    Did you ask how he was working on it?
OwariDa    not really, but i actually think he just stumbled upon some of the old articles a

Here are links to few articles:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/10468112/The-internet-mystery-that-has-the-world-baffled.html
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Cicada+3301+online+mystery+enthralls+codebreakers/9211024/story.html
http://m.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Cicada-3301-Die-geheimnisvollste-Schnitzeljagd-des-Internet-2054956.html
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/cicada-3301-the-internet-codebreaking-mystery-that-has-the-world-baffled-20131126-2y6sj.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/26/secret-society-seeks-worlds-smartest-cicada-3301-r/
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/11/cicada-3301-the-mysterious-internet-puzzle-that-has-the-whole-world-guessing/
http://www.channel4.com/news/is-mystery-internet-challenge-a-recruiting-tool-for-the-cia
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6812668
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6861404
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6863043
http://www.drudgereportarchives.net/Article.php?ID=452836&
http://guardianlv.com/2013/11/cicada-3301-what-the-heck-and-who-the-heck-is-it/
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131128-online-mystery-puzzling-the-world
http://www.computerra.ru/88712/
http://eveningharold.com/2013/11/26/revealed-cicada-3301-code-is-recruitment-add-for-barmaid/#comment-490
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/12/07/most-baffling-internet-mysteries
http://guardianlv.com/2013/11/cicada-3301-what-the-heck-and-who-the-heck-is-it/
http://castroller.com/podcasts/StuffTheyDont/3853644

http://metro.co.uk/2013/12/16/cicada-3301-the-most-elaborate-and-mysterious-puzzle-of-the-internet-age-4229892/

http://piratesecurity.de/vorbereitungen-fuer-cicada-3301-2014/

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/12/07/most-baffling-internet-mysteries

http://beforeitsnews.com/strange/2013/12/the-internets-most-secret-organization-cicada-3301-2453534.html

http://www.wnyc.org/story/meet-teenage-codebreaker-who-helped-solve-cicada-3301-internet-puzzle/

Some responses on blogs and other forums:

http://www.metafilter.com/134198/What-is-Cicada-3301
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?232757-The-internet-mystery-that-has-the-world-baffled-quot-Cicada-3301-quot
https://disinfo.com/tag/cicada-3301/
http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=258410 http://digg.com/search?q=3301 http://doubtfulnews.com/2013/11/a-giant-puzzle-whats-it-for/

Google+ Posts
http://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2013/12/7/what-is-cicada-3301
http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/702395-the-story-of-cicada-3301?p=12011218

http://artoftheprank.com/2013/12/08/cicada-3301-baffles-cryptanalysts/
http://www.gpscity.com/buzz/2013/12/do-you-have-what-it-takes-for-cicada-3301
https://forums.hak5.org/index.php?/topic/31234-cicada-3301/
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cicada-3301

http://lunaticoutpost.com/Topic-The-strange-unexplained-mystery-of-CICADA-3301?page=3

Apparently article was on first page of reddit (unconfirmed):

http://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/1rgc2c/who_or_what_is_cicada3301/
http://www.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/1rhadu/for_the_past_two_years_a_mysterious_online/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Cyberpunk/comments/1mfiwg/cicada_3301_is_a_mysterious_secret_society_or/

Podcasts

https://soundcloud.com/newstalk1010/technical-knockout-web-mystery

http://www.canarycryradio.com/2013/12/03/flyby-cicada-3301-internet-mystery/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MLoLYHJxpY (spanish)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQOkAZ6mZA

Cracking the Cicada 3301 internet mystery - Dec 10, 2013

YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbSCGUPX8Sw Stuff They Don't Want You To Know

http://testtube.com/stufftheydontwantyoutoknow/what-is-cicada-3301

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQOkAZ6mZA Heladoscuro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MLoLYHJxpY Spanish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4WIdCN1q-4 Swedish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1iee7TLUJ8 Alltime Conspiracies

Youtube clips posted by 3301 players:

Phone call to 3301s phone line recorded from 2012

Videos from guy who found Korea 2012 poster

Cicada OS boot up process, from 2013

CICADA 3301 The Instar Emergence mysterious 761.mp3 from 2013

FUN STUFF:

http://www.zazzle.com/3301+tshirts

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/cicada+hats

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/cicada_sticker-217659008998585297

http://eveningharold.com/2013/11/26/revealed-cicada-3301-code-is-recruitment-add-for-barmaid/

As usual, 4chan always joins the party (gamejacking mostly):

http://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/13761502/#q13765551

http://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/13767100/
http://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/13767269/

http://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/13865307/#13865493

Same thread was on /b/ (http://pastebin.com/4QfD8Zpb http://boards.4chan.org/b/res/518333151 )

http://archive.4plebs.org/x/thread/13817276/#13817423

Some reddit imposers

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rp8w8/sold_the_last_of_my_coins_when_gox_hit_1234_and_i/ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rp3i0/do_you_know_the_legend_about_cicadas_they_say/ 0xce5=3301 in hexadecimal 0b110011100101 - binary to decimal

2011 Stuff

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301

http://4chandata.org/sci/Cicada-3301-Recruitment-puzzle-is-back-Anybody-interested-in-IT-Cryptography-and-Freedom-of-information-welcome-IRC-http--webchat--a330254

Links from other souces about 3301 2011 puzzle===

OTHER THREADS GROUPS AND FORUMS from 2011

If you find any more interesting links post them here.

Random quote:

[04:17]	Lurker69	3301 is becoming pop culture nao
[04:18]	Tech1	 yeah, it really is. i saw it top of my feed on google news the other day.
[04:18]	Tech1	pretty wild.

November 2013 media exposure

Contents

Stuff we found in 2014