UK Recruiting Codebreakers Via Social Networks

Demerara writes in with a story about a unique codebreaking competition sponsored by the UK government. "UK intelligence agency GCHQ has launched a code-cracking competition to help attract new talent. The organization has invited potential applicants to solve a visual code posted at an unbranded standalone website. The challenge has also been 'seeded' to social media sites, blogs and forums. A spokesman said the campaign aimed to raise the profile of GCHQ to an audience that would otherwise be difficult to reach. 'The target audience for this particular campaign is one that may not typically be attracted to traditional advertising methods and may be unaware that GCHQ is recruiting for these kinds of roles,' the spokesman said."

Re:Can I download it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Slight spoilers:

Yes, it is x86 machine code. However, if you key in the hex values and look/step through the code in a debugger you'll see that it is missing an important part.

Hint: You are not supposed to figure out this part on your own (you can probably figure out 7 of the missing bytes, but you will not be able to guess the rest). You can however find the remaining part on the canyoucrackit website if you are clever...

Re:I've broken it!

[Anonymous Coward]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.canyoucrackit.co.uk
and show ommitted results....
They google indexed it..

Had a job interview at GCHQ...

[Bazzargh]

20 odd years ago...I had been doing the usual round of physics graduate interviews, GCHQ's was a little different. After getting the security pass to get in and being escorted to the interview room, they told me that I wouldn't be able to ask any questions about the job (except pay). Or rather, that I could ask if I liked, but they weren't going to answer. Weird.

The point I guess, is that GCHQ don't recruit clandestinely like spooks, even if the interview process is odd. They're part of the civil service, they advertise in the paper, and recruit graduates in the milk round.

Re:no, they aren't

[robthebloke]

You are talking about the wrong department. This is G.C.H.Q. we are talking about, not Mi5 / Mi6. They are effectively nothing more than the poorly paid secretary to Mi5. Good programming graduates would go on to have interesting and fulfilling career in the software industry. Those that fail to do that, become teachers. Those that fail to do that, go to G.C.H.Q......