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Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

abc.net.au

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Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#21

Post by McDyver »

krisoft wrote: post #11
teddyh wrote: post #7

> She also revealed today that there was a fifth level of encryption on the coin which no one had broken yet. Now, how believable is that?

I completely believe that she said that. It is mostly believable that there is a fifth level. It is likely that they haven't received a correct solution at the time of the announcement yet. Which part are you doubting?

"And believe it or not, a boy, 14 years old in Tasmania, was the first person in just over an hour to get *all four* layers right."

Cue Maxwell Smart: "would you believe 5 layers?"

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#23

Post by jodrellblank »

96llort wrote: post #17
nailer wrote: post #14

I live in the UK but have family in Australia - I can imagine there’s no privacy there either but I was wondering what the law is? In the UK it’s one month of all our private communications thanks to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. What is it in Australia?

Quoted post unavailable.

https://www.gov.uk/types-of-british-nationality/british-citi...

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#25

Post by q-big »

true_religion wrote: post #5
ncmncm wrote: post #4

They really would like for us not to think its being solved by a 14 y.o. the same morning is a debacle. But it is.

> There's a challenge out there to see who can correctly break all the layers, and, would you believe it, yesterday the coin was launched at 8:45am; we put up our web form and said, 'Hey, if you think you've got the answers, fill in the form'," she said. It’s just a game for them to popularize code breaking and do some youth recruiting.

> It’s just a game for them to popularize code breaking

Do they really want to do that - considering these talented people might use their code breaking skills against the government? ;-)

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#26

Post by sen »

It wasn't super difficult, and was quite fun. I'm not a cryptography person and have zero knowledge of ciphers or anything like this, but a friend and I saw it and thought it'd be fun to give it a shot. We shared ideas but pretty much solved each puzzle ourselves in different ways (which was interesting to see in itself).

The hidden 5th puzzle was both the hardest to get going on (due to no hints compared to the others), while also being among the easiest once you figured out what it actually was.

I did a little write-up here if anyone's interested: http://senwerks.com/hacktheplanet/Solving-the-Australian-Sig...

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#27

Post by permo-w »

teddyh wrote: post #13
krisoft wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely believe that she said that. It is mostly believable that there is a fifth level. It is likely that they haven't received a correct solution at the time of the announcement yet. Which part are you doubting?

I doubted the fact that there really was a fifth level. It seems like exactly what someone would make up on the spot in an embarrasing situation like this.

embarrassing? they seemed delighted

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#28

Post by thrown_22 »

Aeolun wrote: post #24

So the first three layers can be solved with pen and paper, and for the fourth you might need a computer. Do we still consider that encryption in this day and age? I know it technically is , but..

In Australia soon that's the only encryption you'll be allowed.

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#29

Post by Yeahsureok »

nailer wrote: post #14

I live in the UK but have family in Australia - I can imagine there’s no privacy there either but I was wondering what the law is? In the UK it’s one month of all our private communications thanks to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. What is it in Australia?

2 years data retention

Re: Australian Signals Directorate coin code cracked by 14yo in 'just over an hour'

#30

Post by sen »

teddyh wrote: post #7

> She also revealed today that there was a fifth level of encryption on the coin which no one had broken yet. Now, how believable is that?

The fifth level was a binary puzzle hidden in the colouration of the writing. Darker/lighter letters were 1's and 0's. The second part of the 5th level was that the other ring of writing had 3 "colours", which were the dots, dashes, and spaces in a morse code string.

The only reason the fifth level was "hidden" was that there wasn't obvious hints/clues pointing to it like the first 4, where each specifically hinted at how to solve the next.

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