[Cryptography] GCHQ puzzler for xmas

[Phillip Hallam-Baker]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 9:56 PM, Endless <3ndless at riseup.net> wrote:

> > Britain's most secretive organisation - GCHQ - has added a cryptic twist
> > to Christmas card season by including a baffling brainteaser.
>
> This reminds me very much of the depiction of the recruitment process
> stipulated by "Alan Turing" in The Imitation Game, where a crossword
> puzzle was distributed via newspaper for talented citizens to solve, and
> subsequently be recruited for the war effort.
>
> The publication of such a puzzle by Hannigan is likely somehow linked
> with GCHQ's recruitment operations for their (less than desirable)
> positions in mathematical or cryptographic fields, or perhaps the
> monitoring of those with advanced mathematical ability
>


An interesting hypothesis and one that should be tested.

So first we set up a committee to solve the puzzle, then send in entries
under names selected at random from the telephone book and watch to see how
many disappear.
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