Cicadas, Ciphers and Codes: The Weird World of Cryptography

For much of recorded history, humans beings have been trying to devise unbreakable codes (and break the codes of their rivals). But is there any truly unbreakable code? And what exactly is Cicada 3301? Tune in to learn more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs two, ghosts and government cover ups. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to now. Hello, everyone,
Welcome back to stuff they don't want you to know.
My name is Matt and my name is Ben. And
today we're covering all of those cryptic things, the things

(00:24):
that are hidden and encrypted, and you you're not supposed
to know what it is. That's how you hide the
stuff they don't want you to know. Ben, we're talking
about it today, and specifically we're gonna be talking about
Cicada three three oh one, which is a fascinating story
and and whatever you want to believe it is. I
don't know what it is, Ben, I don't think you

(00:46):
know what it is. Oh man. We have some ideas,
some thoughts on it. I'm sure you do too. So
as we're as we're going through this, we we want
you to really tell us what you think or how
how stupid we are or what we think, or tell
us tell us how you agree or you just disagree.
You want to hear from you. If you were if

(01:06):
you were on four chance threat on B when this
first came up, then let us know because, of course,
one of the big possibilities for Cicada three three oh
one is that it could be just a massive trolling,
trolling effort by somebody or some group of people with
either a lot of money, a lot of time, some

(01:27):
college students they're board. However, just the effort and kind
of the the smart way. It was done in the
cool way, much like an alternate reality game. I mean, essentially,
that's what it was. Um, I'm a man, I just
wish I had the ability to do that. Oh well,

(01:47):
you do. You just have to focus your time and
plan ahead. Before we go any further, let's explain what
Cicada three three oh one is for our listeners who
haven't seen our video yet. All right, so back on
in January, I think it was January four, two thousand twelve,
there was a post and it was a it was

(02:07):
on four Chan and what'd you say it was? And
it was a message that said it was a picture
and it said, hey, there's a message hidden inside this picture.
We're we're looking for intelligent people. Um, come and find us,
essentially like follow the path and you'll find us. And

(02:30):
there were bread crumbs hidden in this picture. There was
some information in the metadata the picture I believe, which
ultimately points to some websites, and these go to increasingly
difficult or obscure codes and references and puzzles. So when

(02:50):
we looked at some of our cryptography material, um, you know,
we did uh we did an episode on just an
intro to cryptography to build up to go to Cicado,
which has some cryptography involved, but also just has some
straight up puzzling stuff. Yeah. Yeah, and references to historic materials,

(03:11):
occult sources. Mandius was involved at one point. And the
the interesting thing is that this also spills over into
the real world. It's not just online. The big question
has always been what, who and why. Well, let's go
over some of the possibilities and I'll just throw some

(03:32):
out at you. You tell me what you think, alright,
and vice versa. You go absolutely first one that it's
some kind of intelligence agency trial or a recruitment. Uh. Possibly,
I would say, but only possibly in that I could
see a private contractor that's hired by an intelligence agency

(03:55):
doing that. An intelligence agency itself would have a little
bit more difficult time. Case in point, Google and am
I five have both had things like this. You know,
billboards at the sage you want to join, here's the
break this code, and they'll lead you to the website.

(04:16):
And Google at least came out and said that they
didn't get great results or great hires from this. Yeah,
so I can. I can kind of imagine someone who
has enough free time to go through take the effort
that it would take to do that. Okay, I've got
one for you. Yes, all right. What if it's just uh,

(04:37):
some more obnoxious viral marketing. I would say, if it
is some kind of viral marketing, they're they're doing an
ineffective there. They're not doing a great job just because
there's not much branding there besides the Cicada word. And
I don't know if you do what we did where
you you're just searching the internet and trying to find

(04:59):
more information, and there's no game that's kind of related
to it. There's no there's no book or movie. I
don't know. I don't think so, all right, But to
your point, will both feel kind of foolish when Cicada
Man thirty three oh one comes out, you know, in
March or something. Yeah, maybe, but it's it's kind of

(05:21):
an early start. When you say and just because they
did it again. And you know, if you if you,
if you get to the end, let's say, let's say
you get to all the way to the end of
this crumb trail, allegedly you find one of these posters
that they had up in the real world in cities

(05:42):
all over the United States, and nobody knows who made it, Like,
it's not people who do make it don't talk about it.
There's been one. I've seen one post of somebody who
actually completed the game and it was allegedly nobody who
completed the aim. And well, let let me throw one

(06:03):
back to you, because this is what this person said. Yeah,
he said, it's essentially a secret organization and secret society
of sorts that has very specific beliefs about philosophy about
how the world should be, and they want to they
want to make changes in the world according to those beliefs. Right, yeah,

(06:24):
So what do you think? Um? Is it? Are? You
ask me? Is it possible that that global think tank
idea is real? Well? Yeah, is it real? How plausible
is it? Uh? It's it's totally plausible. I mean, it's
totally possible, But it's also plausible because the world is
full of people who start think tanks like this, you know,

(06:47):
whether it's a commune or some people who get together
and say, hey, you know what we should do, um
plant more trees, you know, or you know, you know
what we should do is kill more eagles. It doesn't
necessarily have to be a good idea. I'm saying people
band together for that kind of stuff all the time
because they Everybody likes to feel like you're they're changing

(07:09):
the world, right, and part of a group. People love
being part of a group, man. And from this, I
think it I think it could be possible. But also
also you have to wonder, all right, let's do the ifs.
Big if if this is true, as an if he
really received a letter and it is true, which is

(07:31):
a huge if, um, then that leads us to a
second if. And that if, which is also big, is
if these people are really um actualizing the philosophy that
they have. Then that leads us to a third thing.

(07:55):
The only way to see that or to measure that,
would be to see concrete effects in the world that
are traceable to this group. And at this point, the
only thing that's happened that has been clearly identified as
of this group would be the papers, the paper posters
of cicadas um, which is not I think not the

(08:19):
end goal of this group if they are legit. So
with all those copyats in place, it's it's possible, But
I I still don't have enough information to say one
way or the other. Here's what I had a conversation
with my friend Nick the other day and he, uh,
he came up with an interesting idea. What if this

(08:43):
is kind of a snare. It's a it's a trap
catch the best and the brightest hackers that maybe that
some group feels would be anti their establishment. Let's see these. Yeah,
well that's that's pretty. And yeah, once you get to
the end of the tunnel, it's bye bye because nobody

(09:05):
knows you got there. M hmm. It's not only just
straight to Guantanamo. Oh boy, Well that's a fascinating idea
because it makes me think of a pretty scary what if.
Um So, people used to think it was crazy that
the n s A would be monitoring everything you do
on the internet. Every they know what pornography look at.

(09:27):
Incognito mode is not saving you, guys, No, it's not.
But it's fine unless you're into something illegal. I'm sure
it's just dirt that will be kept on you in
case you go the wrong way. Isn't that the how
the conspiracy theory goes. Yeah, the good thing that I
take solace in is that, um, unfortunately a lot of

(09:49):
people look at porn, so it's not that big a deal.
Just don't feel too bad, guy listening to this right
now while you're looking at porn. It's okay. You're You're
gonna be okay, don't worry about it's not it's weird though.
That's a weird situation right now. I am really sorry
to call you out like this, but you know who
you are. Be cool, man, Be cool. But the reason

(10:11):
that we bring up this idea of this, this sort
of panopticon situation wherein someone's entire life online and in
the real world can be monitored, is to say that
with this information, it is possible, again possible, maybe not plausible,
that an intelligence agency would be able to take the metadata,

(10:35):
construct the um the perfect demographic thing, maybe to catch
just one person. So maybe they know enough about a
group of people where they where they were able to
build a profile and they said, well, the kind of
person that we are looking to catch has a love
of Victorian literature, a little bit of a maybe a rash,

(11:00):
a little libertarian bent uh has a love of puzzles.
They like these animals. They most they're most likely. It's like,
you know, because is it Is it plausible? Now, that's
a lot of work. Is it possible? Sure? And that
to me, um makes for at least a very good

(11:20):
short story. Yeah. The lesson is just don't do anything
to piss off U enough for them to want to
target you and spend the time and effort, right, And
you have to wonder, if Cicada three three oh one
is real, then are are they going to be gunning
for us? I don't think so, because if anything, we're
just we're just fascinated. And if it's just some eleven

(11:43):
year old kid brilliant and his internet friends, then h
that's amazing. And you know what if it's if it's
like a forty year old person and or a group
of four year old people, it's still it's still fascinating.
Because these posters went up around the world globally, and

(12:03):
that's the most impressive part, you know, from Soul Korea,
Soul South Korea to u y E to what we
should look up and see if you're how how close
they were to embassies. I'd be interested to know. Yeah,
how close each one of those posters was to an
embassy or if there was a really at the panner,
because I haven't truly looked at the pattern of where

(12:25):
these things were placed. Yeah, we weren't able to do
that for this episode. But but if they if there
was any intelligence agency related to this, uh, they sure
as hell would not put it near their own embassies.
Oh yeah, no, absolutely, So you're thinking these are all
near the U. S. Embassies must be the Russians? Well right,

(12:47):
I mean I don't know that. I don't know. But
one last thing I know. We have to wrap up
ben Uh. I actually have a small team of guys
that are going to be trying, if it happens again
in early January, who are going to be trying to
solve it. Um. I am not going to be very
helpful on this team, but I'm going to be on

(13:10):
along for the journey to see what happens. Oh wow,
that's awesome. Maybe you can come back and updates. Maybe
if they're cool with it, bring bring one of them
in for an interview. Oh yeah, absolutely, it's actually that
guy I was telling you about. Nick. Okay, Yeah, Nick
the white hat cool. Alright, Well, as long as he's
a good wizard, Uh, then let's let's have him on

(13:33):
this show if something happens with Cicada. Uh. The reason
that people think that January four Third Team may bring
something new from this group is that they've been relatively quiet.
Apparently they if the puzzles are real, they've been contacting
the people figuring it out directly rather than sending open statements. Yeah,
they make them open up a brand new email UM

(13:54):
that's never been used before so they can have contact. Yes,
and uh, this idea, this guess, this speculation is based
entirely on the cyclical nature of the UM statements, right,
because the January four a few years ago to January
four in the coming year. So we will have to

(14:16):
do one of my least favorite things, which is wait. Yeah,
we'll just have to wait, and you know how I
hate that. But uh, but in the meantime, we're gonna
be off working on some other fascinating things that we
hope you enjoy as much as we do. And well,
in some cases, enjoy is not the right word. But

(14:38):
I'm more big the fascination with uh in the meantime, Matt,
Where can people find us? You can find us on
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(15:02):
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(15:23):
start making some better stuff. You know. Yeah, we we
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(15:46):
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