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Unknown Purpose

For the last couple of years a secret organization who call themselves “Cicada 3301” has posted on four different occasions a series of complex puzzles. These puzzles have been posted publicly on major cities around the world and on the internet. The purpose of the puzzles are to recruit “highly intelligent individuals”. Nobody knows or has been able to confirm the exact purpose of the organization. There is much speculation that the recruiting is linked to MI6, CIA, NSA or even a hacking group. Others have speculated that it’s related to an alternate reality game using the real world as a platform. As of today no individual has come forward as having solved all of the puzzles. Many have solved the initial puzzles making it to the final stages.

Complex Puzzles Posted

Cicada 3301 introduced the first puzzle to the world via the internet on January 4, 2012. Some users browsing 4chan board saw the unusual message.

366 days after the first puzzle a second puzzle was posted using 4chan message board on 5th of January 2013.

Following the pattern many waited on the net for the next clue to be posted early 2014. After many fake posts a genuine puzzle was posted on January 6th, 2014 under Twitter linking to an image on imgur.

No new puzzles were posted during January 2015. The last puzzle was posted via Twitter on January 5, 2016.

Down The Rabbit Hole

Using decryption software many have been able to enter the race to solve these puzzles. What follows are more puzzles,book references, images, geographical coordinates, instructions to follow and even emails directly from Cicada 3301. The organization has already proven to be world wide. Most of these clues and emails have been posted around the web but the main question remains. Who is behind these complex puzzles to recruit highly intelligent individuals? Come January 2017 we should be receiving a new complex puzzle to be solved.