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NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

nsa-codebreaker.org

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Re: NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

#41

Post by Jerrrrrrry »

tekla wrote: post #36
diggan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aha, that'd explain it. NSA only hire people fresh out of school?

No. They hire plenty out of school, but they generally are not the type to be filtered by an email domain requirement.

  but they generally are not the type to be filtered by an email domain requirement.
They are exactly the type to filter by something as "trivial" - 99% of their target audience is Math nerds with .edu emails.

The other 1% will go the other 99% of the way to acquire the needed materials to satisfy the target condition. Which in this case, is a room-temperature check compared to the challenges.

Re: NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

#42

Post by Jerrrrrrry »

sandworm101 wrote: post #20

Is it cheating to use commonplace AI? NSA are a practical bunch, they probably dont much care how one solves the problems, but AI could change the nature of such tests. The rules say no getting help from persons, which leaves the AI door open imho. (Fysa, there is a reasonable chance that someone involved in this competition is following this topic. HN is known in the more nerdy corners of the int/defense world.)

I would love to see you try to get Gemini to make corporate puns, 3-figures removed from practical phishing utility.

Re: NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

#43

Post by pclmulqdq »

tptacek wrote: post #26
diggan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aha, that'd explain it. NSA only hire people fresh out of school?

They primarily do. Someone else on the thread says they do some industry hires, but everyone I know who worked there was recruited from engineering school.

I know a few people who went in as experienced hires, but the NSA in particular is happy to do high-paid contracts if you have the appropriate skills, so most of their actual employees seem to be straight out of school.

Re: NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

#44

Post by hatsunearu »

tptacek wrote: post #26
diggan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aha, that'd explain it. NSA only hire people fresh out of school?

They primarily do. Someone else on the thread says they do some industry hires, but everyone I know who worked there was recruited from engineering school.

They have an internal school that's a few years long (?!) that teaches you a bunch of stuff. Or so I heard...

Re: NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

#45

Post by ricksunny »

YinglingHeavy wrote: post #24
paulluuk wrote: post #17

After reading "Permanent Record" by Edward Snowden and "Cult of the Dead Cow" by Joseph Menn, I can't help but feel like the NSA is basically "the bad guys", and I assumed most hackers would feel the same. Are people really excited to do challenges like these for them? I don't mean that in an accusatory way, just genuinely curious as my perspectives (one from a whistleblower and one from 80s hacker culture) are obvio…

Someone isn't Comms Aware. Biggest event of 2013: Snowden. Biggest film of 2013: Frozen (Let I.T. Go) Biggest game of 2013: Last of U.S. The NSA was effectively blinded for a period of time. Do you think bad actors didn't take full advantage of this? Where did Snowden work prior to NSA? Why doesn't Julian Assange have a Hollywood film?

>Assange film

The Fifth Estate.

Re: NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

#47

Post by seabass-labrax »

FanaHOVA wrote: post #3
sigma5 wrote: post #2

I got this error while trying to register. Does anyone know a simple way to bypass this ? "Sorry, that email domain is not recognized. -- An email address from a recognized U.S. school or university is required. If your school's domain is not recognized, please request it to be allowed by clicking HERE"

If you need HN commenters just to bypass the signup, you will not have a good time in the challenge :P

Just because it's a computer security challenge doesn't mean you should start breaking into the website before the challenge begins. That's akin to suggesting that boxers who were deemed not to qualify for a competition should punching the referee to prove otherwise; what's normal inside the sport can be entirely unacceptable outside it.

Re: NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

#48

Post by tptacek »

Jerrrrrrry wrote: post #41
tekla wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. They hire plenty out of school, but they generally are not the type to be filtered by an email domain requirement.

but they generally are not the type to be filtered by an email domain requirement. They are exactly the type to filter by something as "trivial" - 99% of their target audience is Math nerds with .edu emails. The other 1% will go the other 99% of the way to acquire the needed materials to satisfy the target condition. Which in this case, is a room-temperature check compared to the challenges.

I do not think their audience is in fact mostly math nerds.

Re: NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

#49

Post by ganoushoreilly »

hatsunearu wrote: post #44
tptacek wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They primarily do. Someone else on the thread says they do some industry hires, but everyone I know who worked there was recruited from engineering school.

They have an internal school that's a few years long (?!) that teaches you a bunch of stuff. Or so I heard...

There are many pathways and schools internally for the different directorates. Most programs are partnered with outside schools, with some giving you course credits for internal classified work and only requiring a few outside unclassified courses to fulfill needs. Many of these are MS degrees. I got one through one of these programs. Which come in handy with restrictions on promotions / positions based on ed reqs.

Re: NSA Codebreaker Challenge 2024

#50

Post by bangaladore »

Jtsummers wrote: post #21
diggan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it looks like maybe 100 people completed the entire challenge. It looks like ( https://nsa-codebreaker.org/leaderboard_2022 ) at least 350 schools has a "School Solve Times" that isn't null, so unless some students are enrolled in multiple schools, it seems like way more than 100 people managed to solve it.

Go to Task 9 at the bottom. 40-someting schools had people score, about 102 people scored on that task (more completed it though, not sure what the difference is, hand counted so may have miscounted).

Correct, which is why I say 100-something. For some reason, they put all the schools in every table. Just a guess, but I assume "scorers" are only people who solved it in the limited time window.
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